British artist Lynn Chadwick was instrumental in freeing modern sculpture from its traditional figurative and celebratory forms, pushing it toward abstract, imaginative expression. His market remains strong, largely due to the careful management of his estate by his family. Now, “Hypercircle,” a series of shows divided into three chapters in two locations, seeks to improve Chadwick's reputation and improve his position in the market.
Timed to coincide with Art Basel Paris, the first exhibition, “Hypercircle – Chapter 1: Scalene,” opened at the Galerie Perrotin next to an exhibition of works at the Center des Monuments Nationaux–Hôtel de Sully. The exhibition focuses on Chadwick's formative years, showcasing sixty important works produced between 1947 and 1962—a time when the artist defined his distinctive style and gained international recognition. The Observer spoke to curator and art historian Matthieu Poirier, who played a key role in organizing the show.
Poirier said the exhibition is the culmination of years of discussions with the Chadwick legacy. He first connected with them during the research for his important exhibition “Suspension” and the publication, which looked at artists who developed the idea of recording beyond the foundation. Despite the fact that some of these pieces are not Chadwick's most acclaimed works, the exhibition highlights the artist's exploration of “Cellulars” in the 1950s. “They are something deeply connected to the history of abstract art,” Poirier said. “It's about losing boundaries and creating meaning.”
Chadwick's fascination with setting and his intuitive way of working with unusual materials was inspired by his diverse background as an architect, furniture and textile designer, and later, as a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm during World War II. According to Poirier, for the artist, “cell phones were extensions of buildings, moving parts of buildings. He was always interested in things that fly, as well as in his past as a pilot.”
As Chadwick sought to free sculpture from mass and traditional support, his works evolved into animal-like forms, often with angular bodies and soft, spidly legs. Although complex and conceptualized in a variety of ways, these sculptures also speak to nature. Poirier noted that Chadwick was fascinated by biology, particularly Darwin's theory of evolution, with illustrations from those scientific texts inspiring his unique biomorphic language.
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For this reason, the objects created by the sculptor are often seen as relics suspended between the present and the past, between the distance and the presence of their species, evoking humanoid figures with anthropomorphic heads and limbs while retaining their “otherness”. Many of Chadwick's pieces are also insect-like, particularly the reference to the exoskeleton—a concept that struck the artist as he explored the idea of a protective shell or carapace covering the body's structure.
This connection to natural forms and geometries became even more pronounced after Chadwick moved to Lypiatt Park, a neo-Gothic castle in the Cotswolds. From the late 1950s onwards, he drew inspiration directly from the rivers and rich fauna surrounding his new studio. Yet as his biomorphic tendencies became more apparent, his work continued to combine elements of nature with machinery, industry, and even the future, reflecting the aesthetic sensibilities of his time.
Chadwick's work was not tied to a particular subject or political situation, which is why Poirier avoids dividing his pieces by “genre” in this exhibition. Instead, he wanted to highlight the way the artist works, allowing the sculptures to transcend specific directions. By juxtaposing the works with life and showing them as if they periodically gather at the foundations, Poirier emphasizes their fluidity. “They are always highly stylized and keep the main lines of the real thing,” he said.
Some of Chadwick's sculptures are on display at the Monuments Nationaux–Hôtel de Sully. These pieces, weighing up to 800 kg, are remarkable not only for their scale but also for the artist's working method – Chadwick often worked alone and made his sculptures without preliminary drawings, relying on a precise and automatic process. Poirier likened this approach to the spontaneous writing of a surrealist, noting that his process was “non-systematic, leaving out the best.”
At the same time, Chadwick's work is deeply rooted in the tradition of sculpture pioneers, from Russian Constructivists such as Naum Gabo to Henry Moore, and even the existential sculptures of Alberto Giacometti, where bodies are reduced to their minimal forms. “I've always seen him as missing the link between Henry Moore, Giacometti and someone like Louise Bourgeois,” says Poirier, emphasizing the broader significance of Chadwick's practice. “If you look at his spiders, it's clear that he was looking at Chadwick's work, and he wasn't the only one.”
Compared to Moore and Giacometti, Chadwick's works convey a similar sense of vulnerability and fragility, reflecting the uncertainty of the post-war era. He lowers the base of his sculptures, creating a sense of imbalance and instability through the use of triangular shapes, a key feature of his sculptural language. As Poirier explained, this instability was not only an aesthetic quality but also a means of evoking movement: “The idea of the scalene triangle, this irregular triangle, is an unstable condition on the verge of collapse, not equilibrium. It is not orthogonal. There are no symmetries. It is on the verge of collapsing or giving birth to another triangle or tetrahedron—these are the conditions considered in this simple structure.”
The concept of the scalene triangle was so important to Chadwick's work that it inspired the title of the first chapter of his exhibition in Paris. Poirier added that this systematic approach may have stemmed from his background in architecture, where he learned to stabilize buildings using diagonal lines, creating a strong connection between gravity. This architectural influence is evident in the way Chadwick balances strength and instability within his sculptures.
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Profmysteriously, Chadwick's mixed media sculptures seem to symbolize new possibilities for symbiosis between nature and human creation. His concept of “living growth” within sculptures gives a glimpse of longing for themes such as inter-species relations and “alienity,” ideas that have become very popular in today's art and creative fields. As humanity is forced to rethink its place in the world, this sculptor's work feels more relevant than ever, whether viewed through dystopian or optimistic lenses.
The title “Hypercycle” will continue with a second chapter in New York focusing on the period of maturity of Chadwick from 1963 to 1979. The final chapter will be set in Asia. Complementing the exhibition series, a monograph to be published in 2025 will provide a comprehensive overview of Chadwick's work, offering a variety of perspectives on his work and legacy.
“Hypercircle – Chapter 1: Scalene” is on view at Galerie Perrotin in Paris until November 16.
