Steel Open-work Screen by Bruce McLean
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The internationally acclaimed artist Bruce McLean was born in Glasgow. He trained as a sculptor but was initially recognised in the 1970s as a performance and installation artist. In more recent years Bruce McLean has carried out several sculpture commissions including the bar at the renovated Arnolfini, Bristol in 1987 and set designs for a ballet. Steel Open Work Screen Sculpture is one of a series of works commissioned from Bruce McLean for the staff restaurant of Credit Suisse First Boston. Therefore the new restaurant at Warwick Arts Centre is an appropriate context for this work. As our eye follows the lines and rhythms in Steel Open Work Screen Sculpture, the frieze of figures may appear to move through space. This effect perhaps recalls the relationship of the artist's own body to the setting for his performances. The screen is free-flowing and spontaneous; it is as though the artist has sketched the figures in steel. The four large, stylised faces engage the viewer. They seem somehow isolated from each other, but are animated through zigzag and curved lines, suggesting hand gestures and conversation. "Bruce McLean makes big art out of small details - the gestures, styles and mannerisms that, whether we like it or not, orgchestrate our lives and obsess us all" Louisa Buck.