CLEMENT MEADMORE (AUSTRALIAN 1929-2005), UNTITLED CLEMENT MEADMORE (AUSTRALIAN 1929-2005)UNTITLEDCor-ten steel 156 x 156cm (61¼ x 61¼ in.)Executed in 1966. Provenance:Ahmet Ertegun (Turkish/American 1923-2006), record producer and philanthropist,co-founder and president of Atlantic Records Private Collection, Robert Stigwood (Australian 1934-2016), music and film producer, acquired from the above Clement Meadmore was an Australian born American sculptor renowned for his monumental pieces of sculpture that embodied the exploration of modernism. Born in Melbourne, Meadmore studied engineering at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Shortly after enrolling on the course Meadmore converted to industrial design. Meadmore's skills in both engineering and design facilitated his artistic output aiding the successful production of monumental pieces in steel, full of balance and energy. After visiting an outdoor sculpture exhibition at Middelheim Park in Antwerp, Meadmore started experimenting with metalwork and welding. His works during the 1950s represented interlocking vertical and horizontal rods creating textured, jagged grids with a tactile nature. In 1963, frustrated by the contemporary art scene in Australia, Meadmore moved to New York. The present work was executed in 1966 after Meadmore developed a sculpture titled Bent Column, which is now held by the Newport Harbor Art Museum on Newport Beach in California. A contact sheet of twelve black-and-white images, held in the collection of the Estate of Clement Meadmore, illustrates five different sculptures that were produced as he explored new ideas in the aftermath of Bent Column. The fourth row shows the present lot, a c-shaped sculpture, with both loops straightened and twisted at ninety degrees to the broad front of the form. The simplistic, paired back nature of the work which occupies a square-section volume encourages the viewer to explore the relationship between mass and space created by the single geometric form. 'It is important to me that the entire form of a sculpture can be deduced from any single angle, otherwise one is only seeing half a sculpture at any given moment.' Clement Meadmore The present lot was acquired by Ahmet Artegun, the co-founder and president of Atlantic Records. The independent record label was launched to support gospel, R&B and jazz music in New York. The company went on to record hit records with major artists including The Drifters and Ray Charles. Under the pseudonym of 'nuggy' Ertegun was also a successful song-writer, he famously wrote 'Mess Around' for Ray Charles amongst many other hits. Ertegun was a renowned art collector and in 2000, the art collection of Ahmet Ertegun was acquired by The Baker Museum in Naples, Florida. The collection of modern art included important pieces by American abstract artist Irene Rice Pereira, politically driven Gertrude Glass, American modernist Oscar Bluemner and Russian-American abstract painter Illya Bolotowsky amongst others. In 2006, Ertegun tragically died after falling at a Rolling Stones concert at the Beacon Theatre, New York. A year following his death Led Zeppelin performed at the O2 Arena in London as a one-off tribute concert in memory of Ertegun. The concert raised funds for the Ahmet Ertegun Education Fund which supported University scholarships throughout the UK, US and Turkey. The present work was originally installed in the grounds of Ahmet Ertegun's Russian dacha style house in Southampton, New York where he lived with his wife Mica Ertegun. It was noted in Vanity Fair that during the renovations Ertegun had the living room enlarged to accommodate an orchestra. It was most likely during the 1970s that music producer, Robert Stigwood saw the work whilst visiting his friend Ertegun at his Southampton estate. A sale was agreed and Stigwood purchased the work direct from Ertegun. Robert Stigwood was born in Port Pirie, Southern Australia in 1934. By the mid-1950s Stigwood moved to the United Kingdom and went on to become one of the most important music entrepreneurs and film producers of the 20th century. By 1970 Stigwood had achieved great success in managing Cream, Eric Clapton and the Bee Gees. Stigwood then turned his attention to film production launching with Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Grease in 1978.