Bronze on marble base
Tate Collection
Works with images
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/pietro-consagra-936" aria-label="More by Pietro Consagra" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Pietro Consagra</a>
Unknown Political Prisoner
Purchased 1953
abstraction
adults
architecture
barbed wire
figure
figure
from recognisable sources
government and politics
man-made
people
political prisoner
society
townscapes / man-made features
<p>This maquette is a unique cast. It was acquired in 1953, directly from the exhibition at the Tate Gallery of a selection of the entries for the international competition 'The Unknown Political Prisoner'. The interlocking spiky limbs refer both to barbed wire and to a man striving to free himself from whatever holds him entrapped. Consagra conceived it as placed in the centre of a square. The monument was intended to have a height of about six metres and a base of one metre.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
sculpture bronze marble
The Unknown Political Prisoner
object: 502 × 267 × 286 mm
Purchased 1953
<p>This <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/maquette" title="Glossary definition for 'Maquette'"><span>maquette</span></a> is a unique <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/cast" title="Glossary definition for 'Cast'"><span>cast</span></a>. It was acquired in 1953, directly from the exhibition at the Tate Gallery of a selection of the entries for the international competition 'The Unknown Political Prisoner'. The interlocking spiky limbs refer both to barbed wire and to a man striving to free himself from whatever holds him entrapped. Consagra conceived it as placed in the centre of a square. The monument was intended to have a height of about six metres and a base of one metre.</p>
Display caption
2004-08-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>Pietro Consagra</b><span> born 1920 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/consagra-the-unknown-political-prisoner-n06166" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N06166</span></a> </span><b>The Unknown Political Prisoner</b><span> 1952 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Inscribed 'CONSAGRA' near bottom</span>
<br/><span>Bronze, 19 ¾ x 10 ½ x 11 ¼ (50.3 x 26.5 x 28.5) on marble base; height including base 27 (68.5)</span>
<br/><span>Purchased from the International Sculpture Competition (Grant-in-Aid) 1953</span>
<br/><i>Exh:</i><span>
</span><i>International Sculpture Competition: The Unknown Political Prisoner</i><span>, Tate Gallery, March-May 1953 (46); </span><i>Pietro Consagra</i><span>, Palazzo dei Normanni, Palermo, February-April 1973 (14, repr.)</span>
<br/><i>Lit:</i><span>
Giulio Carlo Argan, </span><i>Pietro Consagra</i><span>
(Neuchâtel 1962), p.103, repr. pl.11</span>
<br/><i>Repr:</i><span>
</span><i>Numero</i><span>, December 1952 (Anno IV, Serie III, No.3), facing p.22 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>A <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/maquette" title="Glossary definition for 'Maquette'"><span>maquette</span></a> for the International <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'Sculpture'"><span>Sculpture</span></a> Competition: The Unknown Political Prisoner. This competition, which was financed by an anonymous American and organised by the Institute of Contemporary Arts, was designed to promote interest in contemporary sculpture and 'to commemorate all those unknown men and women who in our time have been deprived of their lives or their liberty in the cause of human freedom'. After a preliminary selection had been made by the national juries, 140 entries were exhibited at the Tate Gallery in March-May 1953; the first prize of £4,500 was awarded to Reg Butler. The maquettes were small-scale models from which larger works could be made. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Other maquettes acquired by the Gallery at the same time were those by Gilioli [</span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/N06167" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'N06167');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>N06167</span></a><span>], Minguzzi [</span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/N06165" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'N06165');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>N06165</span></a><span>], Pevsner [</span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/N06162" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'N06162');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>N06162</span></a><span>], Roszak [</span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/N06163" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'N06163');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>N06163</span></a><span>] and by the British sculptor F.E. McWilliam [</span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/N06164" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'N06164');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>N06164</span></a><span>]; the one by Gabo [</span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/T02187" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'T02187');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>T02187</span></a><span>; see also </span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/T02186" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'T02186');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>T02186</span></a><span>] was later presented by Gabo himself [see also Heiliger (</span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/T03897" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'T03897');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>T03897</span></a><span>) and Butler (</span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/T02332" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'T02332');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>T02332</span></a><span>
and </span><a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?acno=l01102">L01102</a><span>)]. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>The artist has written of this work (letter of 14 June 1973): 'I wished to allude to prongs of barbed wire and to a man striving to free himself from whatever holds him entrapped. The </span><i>heroic figure</i><span> is part of my early group of works of a totemic style (after which my sculpture became </span><i>frontal</i><span>). This sculpture is moreover three-dimensional, in order to give it the monumentality required by the theme (to stand in the middle of a piazza - I conceived it placed like the statue of Giordano Bruno in Rome). The monument was intended to have a height of about six metres and a base of one metre. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>'The only <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/metal" title="Glossary definition for 'Metal'"><span>bronze</span></a> <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/cast" title="Glossary definition for 'Cast'"><span>cast</span></a> is the one in your possession, but there is also a copy in aluminium (artist's <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/proof" title="Glossary definition for 'Proof'"><span>proof</span></a>) in my private collection.' </span>
<br/></p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><span>Ronald Alley, </span><i>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</i><span>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, p.130, reproduced p.130</span>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-15T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
abstraction adults architecture barbed wire figure figure from recognisable sources government and politics man-made people political prisoner society townscapes / man-made features