Sale SEP09A Lot 649

§ Linda Brunker, Irish b. 1966, 'Oak', bronze, figure with foliage,

PROVENANCE: Bought directly from the artist.

This was the FIRST piece Linda Brunker made in this open filigree style and got great reviews when shown in 'Sculpture in Context' exhibition in Fernhill Gardens in 1988 - the year Linda graduated from NCAD. It is simply titled 'OAK'. There were two subsequent pieces called 'Foliose'. One is in the AIB collection. Created to be displayed in a garden setting. This is a key piece which launched Linda Brunker's career.

A review at the time read:

In this context I will finish with one of last year's sculpture graduates from the National College of Art and Design, a young girl called Linda Brunker whose poetic bronze figures made of bronze oak leaves astonish not only the foundries where she does her innovative casting, but also the public who rush to buy her work. Her concerns are based on landscape and nature, and her figures, when shown in the romantic woodland gardens of Fernhill at the foot of the Dublin mountains, seem to take form from the leafy undergrowth. Seamus Heany asks in a recent poem 'How habitable is the perfect form?' The perfect form is habitable when the underlying idea, the artist's intention, and the medium used to express that intention and idea, coalesce so closely and with such crucial balance that an ardent energy is released, breathing life into inert matter.''

'Bronze By Gold - The Work Of Irish Women Sculptors', Dorothy Walker, Irish Arts Review 1989/90

Linda Brunker was born in Dublin in 1966. She studied at the National College of Art & Design between 1983-1988. She has done several large commissions including 'The People's Counsil', City Hall, Laguna Beach 2006, 'Signal', commissioned by RTE in Dublin 1996 and many others. Her works are in various collections worldwide and she has had many solo and group exhibitions. She emigrated to the USA in 2005.
At an early point in her career she began to develop what she terms an 'open filigree' technique of casting in bronze, a practice which has set apart her style and which challenges the traditional concept of bronze figurative sculpture. Her sculptures are typically based on the human form and have a strong spiritual and ecological quality. Natural elements such as leaves, feathers or starfish feature in abundance in her work and are intricately woven together to give shape to elegant figures which are later cast in bronze. The first version of foliose is in the Allied Irish Bank collection. Her work has been in such demand in North America, that in 2007 she opened her own gallery in Los Angeles where her sculpture and drawings form part of an ongoing exhibition.
See www.lindabrunker.com h:13 w:40 d:21 in.
Estimate £ 8,000-12,000

Sold for £6000