Bronze
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/reg-butler-844" aria-label="More by Reg Butler" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Reg Butler</a>
Girl
Purchased 1954
actions: postures and motions
actions: processes and functions
adults
arm / arms raised
dressing / undressing
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
female
nudes
people
standing
vulnerability
woman
<p>In the mid 1950s Butler developed a figurative style that was often overtly erotic and sadistic. Girl is one of the first manifestations of this. The girl stands uncomfortably on two narrow bars. As she takes her clothes off, her genitalia are exposed and her face hidden. Thus she is turned into a sexual object.</p><p>By today’s standards such images may be considered misogynistic. In the context of 1950s Britain they reflected widely held male attitudes towards women that found expression in much art of the period.</p><p><em>Gallery label, April 2005</em></p>
sculpture bronze
11 April 2005 – 27 November 2006
2006-11-27
11 April 2005
2005-04-11
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2005-04-11
Bacon Butler Freud
Collection based display
28 July 2007 – 14 October 2007
2007-10-14
28 July 2007 – 14 October 2007
2007-10-14
2007-07-28
Civico Museo Revoltella (Trieste, Italy)
2007-07-28
Marcello Mascherini
Loan-out
1 May 2009 – 3 July 2011
2011-07-03
2 May 2009 – 3 July 2011
2011-07-03
2009-05-02
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2009-05-01
Wayne Hemingway
Collection based display
Girl
object: 1778 × 406 × 241 mm, 120.6 kg (25.6kg figure / 95kg base)
Purchased 1954
<div class="pbodytext">
<span class="text7">In the mid 1950s Butler developed a figurative style      that was often overtly erotic and sadistic. </span><span class="text13">Girl</span><span class="text7"> is one of the first manifestations of this. The girl      stands uncomfortably on two narrow bars.  As she takes her clothes off, her      genitalia are exposed and her face hidden. Thus she is turned into a sexual      object. </span>
</div>
<div class="para9">
<span class="text7">
<br/> </span>
</div>
<div class="pbodytext">
<span class="text7">By today’s standards such images may be      considered misogynistic. In the context of 1950s Britain they reflected      widely held male attitudes towards women that found expression in much art      of the period.  </span>
</div>

Display caption
2005-04-14T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N06223</b> GIRL 1953–4
<br/> 
<br/>Not inscribed.
<br/>Bronze, 70×16×9 1/2 (178×40·5×24).
<br/>Purchased from the Hanover Gallery (Knapping Fund) 1954.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> Hanover Gallery, April–June 1954 (38, repr.).
<br/><i>Lit:</i> John Rothenstein, <i>The Tate Gallery</i>, 1958, pp.191–2, repr. pl.22.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> <i>Tate Gallery Report</i>, <i>1954–55</i>, 1955, facing p.19; Sir John Rothenstein, <i>British Art since 1900</i>, 1962, pl.130.</p>
<p>The artist has written (20 August 1955) that ‘“Girl” is the first full-size “volume” <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> executed by me since 1948. She bears some relation to the “Girl with a Surfboard” (<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>) executed in 1947–48 - the last “volume” sculpture before the iron figures 1948–51. The grid on which she stands is presumably inherited from the “open” iron figures of preceding years [e.g. <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/butler-woman-n05942" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05942</span></a>].’</p>
<p>This is the fourth of an <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/edition" title="Glossary definition for 'Edition'"><span>edition</span></a> of seven casts. The first was exhibited in <i>British <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/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>Paintings</span></a> and Sculpture</i>, Whitechapel Art Gallery, September–October 1954 (63), and belongs to the British Council. Other casts are at Bristol, The Hague and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. The work, opus 119 in the Hanover Gallery's numbering, is one of several different studies of a girl with a vest made between 1953 and 1957. The related ‘Study for Girl’, 1953 (opus 103; bronze, 34 in. high), was exhibited at the Hanover Gallery, April–June 1954 (36), and at the Curt Valentin Gallery, New York, January–February 1955 (36), where another <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> of <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/butler-girl-n06223" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N06223</span></a> was entitled ‘Girl with a Vest’. Among later developments of the theme are ‘Study for Girl with Chemise’ (repr. exh. cat., Hanover Gallery, May–June 1957 (11)), ‘Study for Girl with Vest’, 1955 (repr. exh. cat., Hanover Gallery, May–June 1957 (16)) and ‘Girl’, 1956–7 (repr. exh. cat., Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, February 1959 (17)).</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, I</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-08T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions actions: processes and functions adults arm / arms raised dressing / undressing emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas female nudes people standing vulnerability woman