Aphrodite by William Turnbull, 1984-2005

The artist William Turnbull worked with abstract forms. He once asked the question, How little will suggest a head? How much load will the shape take and still read head? Head as a colony/head as a landscape/head as a mask/head as ideogram/head as sign…” This thought starkly contrasts the thought of Classic sculptors in which a very specific ideal was sought. This sculpture of Aphrodite sits in the British Museum.

It serves as a perfect example of the ideal sought in Classical Greek sculpture and later admired and imitated by Renaissance artists. What made such sculpture so appealing? Is it not a dream sought through physical forms? Modern art challenges such ideals in search of something more real: presence. Turnbull’s work does just this. In his book, Figuring It Out: the Parallel Visions of Artists and Archaeologists, Colin Renfrew describes Turnbull’s work as a “classicism of another kind…to establish the human presence itself…the horizontal representing the solidity of the earth…the gravity-defying vertical suggesting the human figure – to establish presence and balance. This is a Classicism of being rather than of action.” Turnbull’s work represents a promise of presence. As Greek sculpture begs for attention it remains the end point where our eye will rest. In contrast, Turnbull’s work allows us to look beyond the surface; it challenges us to look at ourselves and feel our own presence in the world.

Head, William Turnbull, 1955