When we offered the sublimely beautiful Figure by John Pangnark from c. 1973-74 last December, little did we know that we would be able to offer so soon another great masterpiece by the artist. We are honoured to present Figure in Motion, almost surely dating from the same period c. 1973-74, the pinnacle of Pangnark’s career. These two sculptures, separately and together, leave us truly in awe of Pangnark’s artistry, and full of admiration for the subtle breadth of his vision.

Figure is remarkable for its purity of form, its delicacy of line and contour, its sensuous texture, and its sense of gentle dance-like movement. Figure in Motion is subtly yet decidedly different in its mood, its sense of movement, and even its execution. It should also be mentioned that while Figure in Motion is only an inch taller than Figure, it is greater in the other two dimensions, giving it almost twice the mass.

Figure in Motion is distinguished by a palpable sense of exuberance – and believe us, this is not a word we ever expected to use to describe a work by Pangnark. The figure dips and sways as we move around it – up and down and side to side – almost as if it were Pangnark’s answer to Manasie’s astonishing Drum Dancer! (lot 7). The sculpture’s planes and lines jut and gesture and meander – its sensuous, but almost in a jazzy way. The treatment of the surface textures too is energetic rather than silky.

Needless to say, Pangnark endowed this figure with his trademark ultra-minimalist facial features. After all, we wouldn’t have expected him to get completely carried away…