Owner: Banbridge District Council

Location: Banbridge District Council Offices Civic Building, Downshire Road, Banbridge

Title: Legs Static

Artist: F E McWilliams (b.1909, d.1992)

Material: Bronze

Size: 110 cm

Funded by: Jointly funded by Banbridge District Council and Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

Background: McWilliam turned to the theme of legs after a period of more or less representational sculpture in the early ‘seventies, when he had worked on the ‘Women of Belfast’ and ‘Banners’ series, both of which had elements of direct political reference. The ‘Legs’ sculptures mark a return to a more playful and paradoxical imagery, and take both the idea of the complete fragment, and of the eliminated torso, as the basis for a series of unexpected and idiosyncratic improvisations. McWilliam’s ability to suggest character and movement with the most economic of means is fully demonstrated in this series, as is his persistent exploitation of the visual joke and the visual pun. The smaller of these works has an elegance and a charm, the qualities of inspired jeux d’esprit; Larger pieces, notably ‘Umbilicus’ and ‘Leg Static’, have a mysterious sculptural presence, the former as of an idol, enigmatic and frontal, the latter as of a figure dematerialising like the Cheshire Cat, her hands incongruously persistent, like its smile.

N.B. The Arts Council of Northern Ireland have an edition of ‘Umbilicus’ in its permanent collection. For further details see the Arts Council Collection on line at www.artscouncil-ni.org/collection.

Artists Details: F. E. McWilliam is an artist of international distinction. The son of a doctor, he was educated at Campbell College, Belfast and began his studies at the Belfast School of Art in 1926. In 1928 he went to the Slade School in London where he studied with Henry Tonks and was a contemporary of John Luke. He won a scholarship to Paris and after that lived in London. In 1938 McWilliam exhibited with the British Surrealist Group and held his first one-man-show at the London Gallery in 1939. In 1940 he joined the Royal Air Force and served for 5 years. From 1946-1968 McWilliam taught at the Slade School. Many of his sculptures were commissioned for public places, for example, a large work for the Festival of Britain Exhibition (1951) at the South Bank Centre, London and Princess Macha for the Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry (1957). In 1981 the Arts Councils in Ireland organised an exhibition of his work which toured throughout Ireland and in 1989 the Tate Gallery, London held a major retrospective of his work. McWilliam’s varied body of work is characterised by a love of the visual and verbal joke although his ‘Women of Belfast’ series depicting women caught in a bomb blast demonstrates his engagement with life in Belfast during the 70s.