Artist: Lynn Chadwick
Date: 2002
Museum: Royal Academy of Arts (London, United Kingdom)
Technique: Sculpture
These two angular figures are dressed in drainpipe trousers and pleated coats: the well-known flamboyant fashion of 1950s ‘teddy boys and girls’. The subculture emerged in Britain in the 1950s after rationing ended, allowing teenagers to carve their own identity for the first time. Their style drew on a combination of Edwardian and American rock & roll influences, and their reputation was one of violence. Art historian Michael Bird has suggested that this sculpture is “probably the first sculptural celebration of contemporary youth culture”, and that its subject shows the artist as a provocative “bourgeoisie-baiter”.This sculpture was probably made for the 1956 Venice Biennale, where Chadwick represented Britain and won the International Sculpture Prize, which had previously been won by older artists with established international reputations.Chadwick made the model for this sculpture by welding together an iron skeleton and then covering it with a
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