Roy Rasmussen 1971 Monumental Aluminum Sculptures

A set of fabulous aluminum two sided monumental sculptures by the renown British Sculptor Roy Rasmussen. They were identified for us by a relative of the artist as “Ida II and Maren”. They are mounted to bases by posts that can be easily set into the ground where they can be mounted outdoors. As aluminum they will not rust and can withstand the weather. Both are signed and dated 71. They are 77 inches tall as pictured. The actual rectangular pieces are 66.75 inches tall. They are 22.5 inches wide and approximately 8 inches deep. In good condition with minor imperfections and age appropriate wear and tear.
From the artist’s Website:
Born in London, England in 1919 of Anglo Danish parentage, he was the third generation of a family of craftsmen in metal. His grandfather had originally worked with metal in Denmark, but it was an uncle in the United States who had used aluminium to produce artistic sculptural forms attracting press coverage. This was the catalyst which led him to embark on studying the techniques of exploiting that medium. Early working life had exposed him to the crafting of sheet metal and different welding techniques
through the car industry at Rolls Royce and then working later in the production of artificial limbs. Initially pursuing art of a representational nature with great success, his first work was completed and exhibited in 1954. A year later he presented two new works, which were then exhibited at the Aluminium Centenary Exhibition in Britain run by the Aluminium Development Association at the Royal Festival Hall and visited by H.R.H Prince Philip. Roy
Rasmussen was to earn widespread recognition from this landmark beginning.
A chance spell in Egypt as a young man (due to military service during the War) had exposed him to ideas and inspirations which would be nurtured and regenerated some decades later. The mysteries and splendors of Egyptian art were enveloped and symbolized into shapes and emblematic forms, and were to remain a powerful influence in many of his works, as he turned away from purely
representational or figurative sculpture. From the early 196os his works were exhibited widely: from many London West End galleries to, internationally, exhibiting at shows such as the British Council at the German Industries Fair and the English Expressionists at the Galerie Creuze in Paris. He had in the late fifties joined the artist Lyall Watson who founded and opened the Woodstock Gallery, off of Bond Street in London, and worked closely with him as a director and artist of the gallery throughout its formative years. In 1967 he left the Woodstock Gallery and moved to the newly opened John Whibley Gallery on Cork Street in Mayfair where he remained as resident artist until it closed in 1977. His association with the Free Painters and Sculptors group, where he had been an early member since the 1950s, was further sealed in 1984 when he became director of their Loggia Gallery with its sculpture garden, in Buckingham Gate, Westminster. He exhibited there throughout the many years following. After his death in 2014 the Free Painters and Sculptors set up the Roy Rasmussen Award to be presented annually, ‘in recognition of one of our founding members Roy Rasmussen, a revered sculptor and historian, whose years of
dedication have inspired generations of FPS artists’.
SELECTED LIST OF MAJOR AND NOTABLE EXHIBITIONS
Aluminium Centenary Exhibition, Royal Festival Hall 1955
Society of Portrait Artists 1957
Drian Gallery Exhibition 1957
‘New Vision’ Denis Bowen New Vision Gallery 1957
‘Painter and Sculptor Collaborate’ Woodstock Gallery 1959
Inaugural Exhibition Woodstock Gallery 1959
‘Symposium’ Royal Institute of British Architects 1959
‘Expressionistes de Londres’ Galerie Raymond Creuze, Paris 1960
‘Art Alive’ International Collection, Northampton 1960
Maurice Jadot exhibition, John Whibley Gallery 1960
British Council Exhibition, Berlin 1961
‘Divergencies’, Quantas Gallery, Piccadilly 1961
‘Europe 1962’ New Vision Centre Gallery 1962
Summer Exhibition, John Whibley Gallery 1962
‘Group Solaire’, Woodstock Gallery 1962
One-Man Exhibition, Woodstock Gallery, 1963
Manchester City Art Gallery exhibition 1964
One-Man Exhibition, Woodstock Gallery 1965
‘Realities Nouvelles 1966’, Musee d’Art Moderne, Paris 1966
Hampstead Artists Exhibition 1966 One-Man Exhibition, John Whibley Gallery 1969 and
Resident Artist at Whibley 1968 – 1977
‘Trends’, Exhibition at Barbican Centre 1984
‘Trends’, Royal Birmingham Society of Artists 1999
‘New Directions’ Loggia Gallery 1999 and 2000
FPS Open Exhibition – ‘Conflict and Resolution’ La Galleria, Pall Mall 2011
60th Anniversary Exhibition ‘Then and Now’ Royal Opera Arcade Pall Mall 2012
Open Exhibition (Free Painters and Sculptors) Menier Gallery 2014 and 2016
Bargehouse Gallery, South Bank London 2018 and 2019
Although his sold works may be international, it is the UK where his art is maintained in many private collections: from a Regency courtyard in Brighton, to permanent public
collections such as the Towner Art Gallery in Eastbourne (right). Many of these works prevail through not only singular abstract interpretations, but the relationship to the times they were produced. For example, The Metapole 1959 (pictured below) suggests not only vague hints and reminiscences of knights of yore, armour and shields, but also, contrastingly, of strange plants or creatures from another world inspired by the
planetary and galaxy space fascinations of those times.
In their own small way, their existence today defines a token of cultural significance, relishing and preserving that movement and era of artists, and making a meaningful statement in the history of art in the mid and late 20thcentury. His work continues today to be respected and acclaimed by critics and connoisseurs
throughout the art world.