“A mammoth, space-science fiction monster”. That’s how the Observer newspaper described the Zemran Sculpture. You might be thinking it looks a bit less intimidating than that today! The Zemran Sculpture, standing before us, is a remarkable example of 20th-century abstract sculpture. Crafted from polished stainless steel, its five semi-abstract forms seem to reach towards the sky. The sculpture was created by William Pye in 1971 and has stood here on the South Bank since 1972. Pye’s inspiration for the piece came from an unlikely source: industrial components. He was fascinated by factories and oil rigs and even sourced some of the materials from a scrap yard. He was particularly captivated by the manufacture of pressure vessels for liquid oxygen. You can almost see those industrial origins in the sculpture’s smooth, curved forms. But the name Zemran has a more poetic origin. Pye found it in an old Times Atlas, referring to a hill fort in Morocco. He felt it captured the mood of the piece. The Zemran Sculpture was a gift to London from the merchant banker Charles Gordon and his wife, the ballerina Nadia Nerina. They believed it deserved a prominent place in the city. And what could be more fitting than here on the South Bank, with the Thames flowing behind it and the sounds of the city swirling around it?
Центральный дом работников искусств
Step through the grand wooden doors of the Central House of the Workers of Art, and you’ll be transported to