Three Unknown Forms

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Department for International Trade, Old Admiralty Building

Ernest Alfred Dunn worked primarily insculpture and colour lithographs, with the lithographs often in conversation with his sculptural works. In this lithograph he plays with geometric forms in an improbable tower. The structures he presents, and their colours, have a sense of playfulness and childlike simplicity. While all his structures stand upright in this print, it is obvious from their structure and shapes that they will topple over – this adds to the playful nature of the work and creates a space for his viewer to anticipate what will happen next. Dunn was a skilled sculptor, and made a number of kinetic sculptures, using media including Perspex, wood and metal. Kinetic sculpture involves ideas of movement, with the term originating from artists of the Futurist movement in the 1920s.

Ernest Alfred Dunn, born in Yorkshire, is a printmaker and sculptor. He studied initially at the Barnsley and Leeds Schools of Art before going on to the Royal College of Art in London where he later taught, and went on to become a senior tutor. He exhibited his abstract forms and lithographs regularly at Redfern Gallery in London and also extensively in Germany and Italy. His works are in museums including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Victoria and Albert Museum, Manchester City Art Gallery and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Places

Subjects

abstract

Materials & Techniques

lithograph

Artist

Ernest Alfred Dunn (1937 - )

Title

Three Unknown Forms

Edition

2/10

Date

Medium

Lithograph

Acquisition

Purchased from Editions Alecto, February 1972

Inscription

below image: Three Unknown Forms 2/10 / Ernest A. Dunn

GAC number

L949