Peter Fuller Sculpture

Peter Fuller

1991

(signed Stephanie McDonald)

Bronze Original Unique

Height: 124 × 81 × 160 cm

Cast: by Red Bronze, London.

Peter is shown seated in his writing chair, holding the small marble copy of the Venus de Milo that he treasured. The ancient Greek sculpture features prominently in Art and Psychoanalysis, where Peter reflected on the changing ways we understand classical sculpture. By placing one sculpture within another, I wanted to acknowledge both Peter’s engagement with the classical tradition and my own discipline as a sculptor. The Venus becomes a dialogue between ancient and contemporary sculpture, between the critic and the sculptor, and between looking at art and making it.

The sculpture was begun in plaster in 1990, two months after I left hospital. I first established the full life-sized figure before sculpting Peter’s head and hands separately in clay and integrating them into the completed body. Building the portrait in this way allowed me to concentrate first on the physical presence and gesture of the figure before turning to the individuality expressed through the face and hands.

As I was making the sculpture, my friend Diane Simmons came to return a shirt I had bought Peter, one he had never had the chance to wear. Seeing the unfinished portrait for the first time made a profound impression on her. She later recreated that experience in her novel Finding a Way, where she describes her first encounter with the sculpture.

Diane’s account captures the extraordinary experience of encountering a sculpture that was created entirely from memory. For me, the work became a testament to the discipline of sculpture itself. Years of studying anatomy, proportion and observation had become instinctive, allowing me to recreate not only Peter’s likeness but also something of his presence.

When Peter’s unworn shirt fitted the completed figure perfectly, it confirmed that the work had become more than a likeness.

This is the plaster version.

For me, the sculpture remains a testament to the enduring discipline of figurative sculpture: the ability, through years of observation and understanding of human form, to recreate not only a likeness but the powerful illusion of presence.

Peter Fuller (1947–1990) was one of Britain’s leading art critics, writer and editor of Modern Painters. We were together for six years, marrying in 1985, and shared a life shaped by art, literature and intellectual curiosity. Our conversations ranged across painting, sculpture, literature, philosophy and psychology, each deepening the other’s understanding of the world. This portrait is both a tribute to Peter’s life and work and a reflection of the creative partnership we shared.

© Stephanie Fuller (Burns)