William Redgrave (1903–1986) was a British sculptor. His major work ''The Event'' was mostly destroyed in the 2004

Momart Momart is a British company specialising in the storage, transportation, and installation of works of art. A major proportion of their business is maintaining often delicate artworks in a secure, climate-controlled environment. The company maint ...

warehouse fire.

Biography

William Redgrave was born in

Little Ilford Little Ilford is a district of London, England in the London Borough of Newham. It gives its name to the Little Ilford ward. Toponymy Little Ilford and Ilford (historically known as Great Ilford)Mills, A., ''Oxford Dictionary of London Place Na ...

, Essex. He worked for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

for a time. In World War II he was an air raid warden. With

Peter Lanyon George Peter Lanyon (8 February 1918 – 31 August 1964) was a British painter of landscapes leaning heavily towards abstraction. Lanyon was one of the most important artists to emerge in post-war Britain. Despite his early death at the ag ...

he then ran an art school in St Ives;

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England under King James I. Bacon argued for the importance of nat ...

rented a studio from them and, in 1957, encouraged Redgrave to take up sculpture.200
""By far the Greatest Loss" of the 'Saatchi' Fire"
stuckism.com 1 June 2004. Retrieved 15 April 2006 His girlfriend in the 1960s was Jenny Pearson, who was a feature writer for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' at one stage in her life.Meek, James 200
"Art into Ashes"
''The Guardian'', 23 September 2004. Retrieved 15 April 2006 In Chelsea she saw him create his major work. This was ''The Event'', a bronze

triptych A triptych ( ) is a work of art (usually a panel painting) that is divided into three sections, or three carved panels that are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all m ...

, measuring 56 x 124" overall, weighing a

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton in the United States to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the s ...

and consisting of 228 figures arranged in 49 different scenes each with a theme, such as flirtation or gang murder. It took the artist three years to make. When it was finished, he said, ""Some great outside thing is happening to these people—something we all fear might be going to happen." The Scottish poet Alan Bold wrote a poem about the work and said the figures were "forced/To face the judgement of a world they represent." ''The Event'' was first shown at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

in 1966. The ''

Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was foun ...

'' reviewed it as "the most successful piece of sculpture seen at the Academy for many years."

Giacomo Manzù Giacomo Manzoni (22 December 1908 – 17 January 1991), known professionally as Giacomo Manzù, was an Italian sculptor. Biography Manzù was born in Bergamo. His father was a shoemaker and sacristan. Other than a few evening art classes ...

's bronze doors for St Peter's, Rome were cited as a comparison. Sir

John Rothenstein Sir John Knewstub Maurice Rothenstein (11 July 1901 – 27 February 1992) was a British arts administrator and art historian. Biography John Rothenstein was born in London in 1901, the son of Sir William Rothenstein. The family was connec ...

, Director of the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

also expressed admiration. It was scheduled for installation in the new Kensington and Chelsea Town Hall, but this plan was cancelled because of financial restraints. Henry Cooper by William Redgrave 02

In the 1970s, Redgrave did portrait heads of a number of noted people, including

Henry Cooper Sir Henry Cooper (3 May 19341 May 2011) was a British heavyweight boxer. He was undefeated in British and Commonwealth heavyweight championship contests for twelve years and held the European heavyweight title for three years. In a 1963 fi ...

Diana Rigg Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg (20 July 1938 – 10 September 2020) was an English actress of stage and screen. Her roles include Emma Peel in the TV series ''The Avengers (TV series), The Avengers'' (1965–1968); Countess Tracy Bond, Teresa di ...

and

Laurence Olivier Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier ( ; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director. He and his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud made up a trio of male actors who dominated the British stage of the m ...

. The bust of Olivier is now in the Olivier Theatre Foyer,

Royal National Theatre The National Theatre (NT), officially the Royal National Theatre and sometimes referred to in international contexts as the National Theatre of Great Britain, is a performing arts venue and associated theatre company located in London, England, ...

in the

South Bank The South Bank is an entertainment and commercial area on the south bank of the River Thames, in the London Borough of Lambeth, central London, England. The South Bank is not formally defined, but is generally understood to be situated betwe ...

complex. The bust of Henry Cooper is in the collection of the

National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: * National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra * National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London ...

in London.Sir Henry Cooper
at npg.org.uk, Retrieved 16 February 2012 In 1998 ''The Event'' was part of a retrospective at the Roy Miles Gallery in west London. Redgrave's family then put the work into storage with

, and were working on plans for a permanent display of it. In 2004 it was in the east London Momart warehouse destroyed by fire, along with works by

Tracey Emin Dame Tracey Karima Emin (; born 3 July 1963) is an English artist known for autobiographical and confessional artwork. She produces work in a variety of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, film, photography, Neon lighting, neon text ...

Jake and Dinos Chapman Iakovos "Jake" Chapman (born 1966) and Konstantinos "Dinos" Chapman (born 1962) are British visual artists, previously known as the Chapman Brothers. Their art explores deliberately shocking subject matters; for instance, in 2008, they produc ...

, and

Damien Hirst Damien Steven Hirst (; né Brennan; born 7 June 1965) is an English artist and art collector. He was one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is reportedly the United Kingdom's richest ...

, amongst others. Critic

Bevis Hillier Bevis Hillier (born 28 March 1940) is an English art historian, author and journalist. He has written on Art Deco, and also a biography of John Betjeman, Sir John Betjeman. Life and work Hillier was born in Redhill, Surrey. In 1947 the family ...

called it "by far the greatest loss" of the fire, but it was initially not mentioned in news reports, until publicised by the campaigning art group the Stuckists on their web site (billed as a "world exclusive"). Five days before the fire, the family had paid £5,508 in back fees. Remarkably, although the left hand side of the triptych was completely destroyed, the sculptor's son, Christopher Redgrave, was able to personally retrieve, in two trips, at least 30 of the 228 figures in good shape200
"The Art that Survived the Momart 'Saatchi' Fire"
stuckism.com 11 June 2004. Retrieved 15 April 2006 – about a third of the central panel, as well as other fragments, though cutting his hands badly on broken glass in the process. He described the experience: :There was a smell of rotting food, rotting chips, rotting meat from one of the units Momart shared the building with ... There were bits of glass hanging from the roof. I had to climb over steel girders. It looked like a twisted rollercoaster that had crashed. As far as is known he is the only person out of the artists or artists' relatives to have been to the site; he said, "this building was inappropriate for what they are doing. There's no way around that."

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Redgrave, William 1903 births 1986 deaths British modern sculptors 20th-century British sculptors British male sculptors 20th-century British male artists