George Kennethson: A Modernist Rediscovered

George Kennethson: A Modernist Rediscovered is an intimate portrait of one of twentieth-century sculpture's hidden treasures. For over fifty years George Kennethson worked in virtual isolation, carving in some of England's most beautiful native stones: limestone, marble and alabaster. He developed an almost intuitive feel for his material, as well as for the rhythms and forms that can be created through the juxtaposition of line and plane, mass and volume.
Kennethson created a body of work - over 400 sculptures in all - that is remarkable for its consistency and sense of purpose. As we look back on the last century of art in Britain, his oeuvre is all the more significant because good stone carving has become so rare. Kennethson is one of the last sculptors in a tradition that includes such Modernists as Jacob Epstein, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and Frank Dobson, through to the early careers of Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore.
George Kennethson: A Modernist Rediscovered is illustrated with some of the artist's most important sculptures, many of which are reproduced here for the very first time. Also included are examples of Kennethson's drawings, in which his brush or pencil is handled with the same confidence and clarity as were his hammer and chisel. These drawings stand as beautiful works of art in their own right and have never previously been published.

Simon Hucker is a freelance art historian based in London.