Hand-cut brasses

Undated
Dimensions variable, between 2 ¾ and 7 in. high

Simple geometric and reduced organic forms fascinated Richard Pousette-Dart. Between 1939 and the late 1980s he created several hundred jewel-like brass sculptures and sketched designs for them in his notebooks.  Small hooks were added to some, enabling them to be worn as pendants, and many were crafted for specific individuals. Importantly, the aesthetic qualities embodied by these brasses ­– circles, spirals, teardrops and more complex designs – often served as elemental imagery within his painting, combined and layered into interlocking compositional components.