Softback book, 108 pages

‘Frank Dobson’s sculptures are vivid with life, but also sought stability and formal completeness. His work engaged with emotion, but was not tortured in any way, moving more towards serenity than anguish. Art was a sanctuary from the chaos of life, and he loved swelling and ebbing forms, oceanic in their grandeur.’

In this latest Goldmark book, esteemed art critic and writer Andrew Lambirth re-evaluates the long neglected legacy of Frank Dobson. Lambirth’s new text examines the breadth of Dobson’s career, from early plaudits to wartime interruptions, explores Dobson’s enduring fascination with the female figure, and finds in his art a key transitional figure in British sculpture, to whom the generation of Moore and Hepworth owed an unacknowledged debt:

‘Whether worked in stone, plaster, terracotta or bronze, his figures have an architectural quality, but are also of the earth. Their apparent simplicity masks a formal complexity, but a complexity that has a beguiling naturalness to it. The mood is gentle and sensuous, but serious, and the best work possesses both grace and grandeur.’

Andrew Lambirth (born 1959) is a writer, critic and curator. He has written on art for a number of publications including The Sunday Telegraph, The Spectator, The Sunday Times, Modern Painters and the Royal Academy magazine.