From The Archive: ‘‘The Falconer’’
Today we bring you some wonderful pictures of Tom Bass AM creating “The Falconer”, electrolytic copper, 1955. You’ll notice that Tom and his assistant worked in a barn, which was located on Tom’s property in Minto.
“This 14-metre-high sculpture was completed in 1955 for the University of New South Wales. The sculpture was designed to convey the ideal that every student of the University should be to some extent an artist, giving due consideration to the aesthetic factors in all their professional activities, whether they be an engineer, geologist or architect etc. In response to the brief Tom Bass drew inspiration from Herbert Read's poem "The falcon and the dove", its powerful images inspiring him to create his "analogy for the conflict between the value of beauty and the unrestrained function of the intellect".” UNSW Art Collection website.
Images courtesy of the Bass family and TBSSS archive.
