Sotheby's Announces Major Online Auction of Work by Scottish Artist William Turnbull

By Susan Mansfield, 05.06.2020

William Turnbull, Blade Venus I, bronze, conceived in 1989. Artist's cast aside from the edition of 6 (est. £60,000 - £80,000). Courtesy Sotheby's and the Estate of William Turnbull.

Bidding opens on 10th June for the Sotheby's auction William Turnbull: The Eternal Now, which includes several major sculptural works alongside paintings, drawings and prints by the British modernist spanning a time period from the 1950s to the 1980s.

Turnbull, who died in 2012 at the age of 90, is best known as a sculptor, engaging with all the key art movements of the mid twentieth century, but the auction also signals the importance of painting and print-making in his creative practice. 

Frances Christie, modern British art specialist at Sotheby’s, who is leading the sale, says: “Turnbull was one of the most talented artists of his generation. His works are part of major museum collections around the world.

“We are very excited to present a wonderful selection from the artist’s estate, bringing to the fore his work as a painter and printmaker, alongside several significant sculptures. It’s a great chance for collectors to see a different side to such a pioneering artist.”

William Turnbull was born in Dundee in 1922, the son of a shipyard engineer. When his father lost his job in the Depression, he had to leave school at 15 and find work, finally landing a position in the art department at D C Thomson, home of the Beano and the Dandy. After a period in the RAF as a pilot, he was accepted to study at the Slade School of Art. 

In the sculpture department, he met fellow Scot Eduardo Paolozzi who shared his interest in European modernism, and moved to Paris in 1948 without finishing his degree, where he met artists such as Giacometti, Brancusi and Paul Klee.

His early work was influenced by primitive art, and he went on to work in minimalism and abstract expressionism. His breakthrough moment came in 1952 when he was selected for the 'New Aspects of British Sculpture' exhibition at the British Pavillion of the Venice Biennale, which brought him to the attention of important collectors. 

His work was snapped up by the American collectors of modernism in the 1960s, and often appears in David Hockney’s iconic ‘collectors’ paintings. Embracing abstract expressionism, he was shown in New York alongside Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. He was the subject of a major retrospective at Tate in 1973.

'William Turnbull: The Eternal Now' includes several iconic sculptures, notably Blade Venus I valued at £60,000 - £80,000 and Venus valued at £30,000 - £50,000, but Turnbull’s son Alex says the auction is an important opportunity to raise awareness of his father’s painting and works on paper.

Alex Turnbull says: “Bill is known as a sculptor but he considered himself equally a painter. Not many artists can do both equally well, but when you see both bodies of work, you realise he could have done either and it would have been enough. It was important to him that both aspects of his work were recognised.”

He says that a reappraisal of Turnbull’s work has been gathering momentum in recent years. “Bill is the preeminent British modernist, people don’t tend to know this because the paintings haven’t been seen. One of the challenges is that he had three or four periods in his work when a lot of artists would have been happy to have one. He was working in abstract expressionism as early as the 1950s.

“The auction is an opportunity to bring together a never-before-seen cross section of his work and present it to a new audience, as well as existing collectors who seem to be quite excited about it. It seems to be catching the eye of younger collectors who might have previously focused on contemporary art.” 

For more information on the sale visit Sotheby's website.