Birdbath sculpture returns to Museum

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/birdbath edited.jpg” caption=”The Henri Gaudier-Brzeska birdbath was restored at a bronze foundry in Toronto. Photo by Susan Bubak. Below, a crane lowered the sculpture into place on Sunday, Nov. 19. Photo by Gerrie Loveys.”]The Henri Gaudier-Brzeska birdbath has been reinstalled in front of the McMaster Museum of Art after it was taken to a bronze foundry in Toronto to be restored in August.

“The underside of the artwork was reinforced with additional bronze reinforcements to ensure that the base can take the weight of the sculpture,” said conservator Sandra Lougheed. “A new footing has been prepared and installation methods upgraded. The artwork has been washed and waxed to protect it from the aggressive outdoor environment.”

The heavy bronze sculpture was transported to the site by truck and lowered into place with a crane on Sunday, Nov. 19.

“It was decided to move the sculpture to a more central location in the grassy triangle outside the Museum,” said Gerrie Loveys, collections and operations manager. “Staff from McMaster's physical plant department installed a specially designed footing for the sculpture to sit on.”

According to an essay by former assistant professor of art history, Niamh O'Laoghaire, the sculpture features “interlocked sitting or squatting nudes. Faces are heavily stylized and mask-like, clearly influenced by 'primitive' sources and evoking Picasso's early Cubist configurations. The angular forms produce dramatic juxtapositions of light and dark planes, while Futurist and Vorticist dynamic lines of force twist and energize the composition.”

The sculpture was cast in bronze in 1992 and purchased by the Museum with funds from the Levy Bequest. The sculpture was first installed outside the Museum in 1994.