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Sketches of three nude forms

Artist: Schotz, Benno, RSA · 1891-1984

Sketches of three nude forms

Schotz first observed human like forms in the roots of an old tree on the banks of the River Kelvin in Glasgow close to his studio. As he would later…

Schotz first observed human like forms in the roots of an old tree on the banks of the River Kelvin in Glasgow close to his studio. As he would later write in his autobiography his; “search for figures in trees began.”

He went on in the same volume to expound on his thought process at the time; "You have to find some universal mythology or symbolism. The Greeks could express all their emotions and beliefs through the human form of their gods and goddesses. On Gothic sculpture the mythology was Christian, and of course, Christian symbolism is still used today. My mythology is Nature in the tree, and Nature is inexhaustible. You can plunder it for ever. Nature and humanity is the aim, to transmute a tree into the thought of a man."

On trips to Israel he encountered ancient olive trees on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem and made numerous pen and ink sketches of their suggestive forms.

Some of these would go on to form the foundation for a move towards figurative abstraction in his sculptural work.

© Royal Scottish Academy of Art & Architecture