Title
Construction
1954
Artist
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Details
- Alternative title
- Revolving ball
- Date
- 1954
- Media categories
- Sculpture , Time-based art
- Materials used
- metal, electric motor
- Dimensions
- 165.0 cm diam.
- Credit
- Gift of the artist 1983
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 26.1983
- Copyright
- © Estate of Margel Hinder
- Artist information
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Margel Hinder
Works in the collection
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About
One of the most important and dynamic Australian sculptors of the 20th century, Margel Hinder was pivotal in the evolution of Australian modernism. Her embrace of new methods and materials, and fascination with light and movement, helped signal a new era for sculpture in this country, and her large-scale public sculptures helped modernise previous approaches to public monuments.
‘I’m terribly thrilled by all the television towers,’ Hinder once enthused. ‘Towers for high tension wires – things like that really send me into an ecstasy almost.’
The broadcast towers that emerged in Sydney’s landscape following the advent of television in 1956 triggered for Hinder the exalted sensation of living in a world of surrounding unseen forces. Responding to the modern touchstones of energy and motion, Hinder created some of the most inspired works of her career.
'Construction' is exceptional as a statement of Hinder’s ‘space-age’ world. It is composed around a slow unfurling movement of tension and release. Its orbiting geometries elude fixed perspective and revolve through space and light.
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Exhibition history
Shown in 7 exhibitions
State Exhibition: Contemporary Art Society (1957), David Jones' Art Gallery, Sydney, Sydney, 10 Apr 1957–24 Apr 1957
Frank and Margel Hinder 1930-1980, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 12 Jun 1980–13 Jul 1980
Review: works by women from the permanent collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 08 Mar 1995–04 Jun 1995
Parallel Visions: Twenty-two artists from the Australian collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 22 Feb 2002–May 2003
Sydney 6 - Abstract artists: Hinders, Lewers, Plates, 1940s-1970s, Newcastle Art Gallery, Newcastle, 09 May 2015–02 Aug 2015
Margel Hinder: modern in motion, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 30 Jan 2021–02 May 2021
Margel Hinder: modern in motion, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 30 Oct 2021–06 Feb 2022
20th-Century galleries, ground level (rehang), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 20 Aug 2022–2023
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Bibliography
Referenced in 6 publications
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Ian Cornford, The sculpture of Margel Hinder, 'List of illustrations', pg. 6-7, Willoughby, 2013, 7, 95, 97 (colour illus.), 140 (colour illus.), 156.
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Lesley Harding and Denise Mimmocchi (Editors), Margel Hinder: Modern in motion, Melbourne, 2021, 139 (colour illus.), 181 (colour illus.). cat.no. 23
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Drusilla Modjeska, The Bulletin with Newsweek, 'Art and Soul', pg. 70-73, Sydney, 17 Dec 2002-14 Jan 2003, 72 (illus.).
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Dr Cassi Plate., Sydney 6 - Hinders, Lewers, Plates: abstract artists, friends, partners, siblings, 1940s-1970s, 'The universal language of abstract art', Newcastle, 2015, n.pag. (colour illus.).
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Natalie Wilson, Parallel visions: works from the Australian collection, 'Grace Crowley / Ralph Balson / Frank Hinder / Margel Hinder', pg. 88-103, Sydney, 2002, 98, 144.
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State Exhibition: Contemporary Art Society (1957), Sydney, Apr 1957. cat.no. 108
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