Stephen Cox (British, b. 1946), "Figure: He"

Lot description

Stephen Cox (British, b. 1946) "Figure: He", 2018 hand-carved Egyptian porphyry h. 26-3/8", w. 6", d. 9-1/4" Provenance: Adrian Sassoon, London, England; Estate of Thomas B. Lemann, New Orleans, Louisiana. Literature: Stephen Bann, The Sculpture of Stephen Cox, London: Lund Humphries Publishers for The Henry Moore Foundation, 1998; stephencox.com Notes: "The Tate's collection of Turners is of course the gallery's principle claim to fame, but they also have a pretty good sampling of Giacometti and David Smith, plus Caro, Chillida, and of all things a modern porphyry sculpture by one Stephen Cox (born 1946). The placard there says no porphyry was quarried for 1,000 years after A.D. 600. Can that be so? Then where did the great porphyry tombs of the Normans in Sicily come from?" - Thomas B. Lemann Travel Journals, August 1997 I felt that in carving there was something more immediately primitive, immediately basic, in terms of language or sculpture. - Stephen Cox Interview with Andrea Schlieker, 1985 Cox's admiration, appreciation, and respect for the materials he uses is evident in the reverent manner in which he approaches his sculptural explorations of form. In his search for the most exceptional stone, he has accompanied geologists and archaeologists on expeditions across India, Italy and Egypt to seek out quarries and sources. He has worked in a variety of stones including marble, alabaster and granite, but his preferred material is porphyry. Porphyry, in its most simplistic definition, is a generally deep red or green, white-flecked igneous hardstone. The exception to this is the rare purple Imperial Egyptian porphyry which was mined only at the Mons Porphyrtes quarries in Egypt, which is now a World Heritage Site. It was extremely popular with the ancient Romans and the Byzantine Empire - and can be seen in items as diverse as sarcophagi, altars, and water basins. Cox was given the unprecedented honor by the Egyptian Government to access the quarries, which had been closed since antiquity, as a part of his commission for the new Cairo Opera House. Cox was elected to the Royal Academy in 2010 and was named a Senior Academician in 2022.