Robert Klippel facts for kids

Robert Klippel (19 June 1920 – 19 June 2001) was a famous Australian sculptor and teacher. He was known for his unique style called constructivism. Many people say he was Australia's greatest sculptor. During his life, Klippel created about 1,300 sculptures and around 5,000 drawings.

Robert Klippel's Early Life and Training

Klippel was born in Potts Point, Sydney, on June 19, 1920. When he was six, he loved making model ships after a ferry ride on Sydney Harbour. This hobby became a big part of his life. He went to Sydney Grammar School.

He first trained to work in the wool industry. But in 1939, he joined the Royal Australian Navy. During World War II, he made models of planes for the navy.

While serving, he took evening classes in sculpture. His teacher was Lyndon Dadswell at East Sydney Technical College. After leaving the military, he studied art there for a full year.

Studying Art Around the World

With help from his parents, Klippel left Australia in 1947. He went to London to study at the Slade School of Fine Art for six months. He lived and worked at The Abbey Arts Centre in London. He was there with other artists like James Gleeson and Inge King.

In 1948, Klippel, Gleeson, and Lucian Freud showed their art together in London. The famous artist André Breton, who started Surrealism, helped Klippel show his work in Paris the next year.

Klippel spent a year in Paris. He learned about Eastern religions and philosophies, like Buddhism, Hinduism, and Zen. This interest lasted his whole life. After 18 months, Klippel returned to Australia in 1950.

In 1957, he moved to New York in the United States. He taught sculpture at the Minneapolis School of Art (now the Minneapolis College of Art and Design) from 1958 to 1962. He stayed in New York until 1963. Then he returned to Sydney, where he lived until he died. He also taught at Alexander Mackie College of Advanced Education from 1975 to 1979.

In 1988, he was given the Order of Australia award. This was for his important contributions to art. He passed away in Sydney on his 81st birthday, June 19, 2001.

Klippel's Unique Art Style and Materials

Klippel used many different kinds of materials in his art. He often used "junk" items like wood, stone, plastic toy parts, old machine parts, and industrial pipes. He also worked with bronze, silver, and even made paintings and collages.

His sculptures varied greatly in size. Some were small and detailed metal pieces. Others were very large wooden sculptures made in the 1980s. Most of his later works did not have titles. They were just known by simple number sequences.

Working with Surrealism and Abstract Art

While in London, Klippel met other Australian artists, including the surrealist painter James Gleeson. They worked together on some pieces. One example is Madame Sophie Sesostoris (1947–48), which combined Klippel's sculpture with Gleeson's painting. For a while, Klippel was interested in surrealism. He even showed his art at a big surrealist exhibition and met André Breton.

During his time in London, Klippel filled his notebooks with drawings. He drew everything from screws and gears to insects and shells. He also studied the human-like shapes used by artists like Henry Moore and Pablo Picasso. While Moore connected human figures to nature, Klippel wanted to connect nature's forms to the shapes of machines. He once said he wanted "to seek the inter-relationship between the cogwheel and the bud."

By 1950, when Klippel came back to Sydney, he was focused on making abstract sculptures. At first, his art was not very popular in Australia. He did not sell his first sculpture in his home country until 1956. Because of this, he had to work full-time, and he made fewer sculptures during this period.

In the 1950s, Klippel moved away from surrealism. In New York, he was inspired by abstract expressionism. He started making sculptures from "junk" materials in 1960. He added machine parts, wood pieces, and industrial pipes to his art.

International Recognition

In 1964, art critic Robert Hughes called Klippel "one of the few Australian sculptors worthy of international attention." This statement helped his international fame. However, he still found it hard to be fully accepted in Australia.

In the 1970s and 1980s, many artists were mixing different art forms. But Klippel stayed true to his idea of sculpture as abstract art. He believed sculpture should fill space and have meaning beyond just telling a story.

Klippel created a lot of art in his last decades. In the 1980s, he made many small bronze sculptures. He also created large wooden sculptures from old parts of early 20th-century ship machinery. By the end of the 1990s, he had finished over 1,200 sculptures. He used wood, metals, plastics, junk, machine parts, and different art techniques.

A documentary film about his life, called Make It New: A Portrait of the Sculptor Robert Klippel, was made in 2003.

See also

In Spanish: Robert Klippel para niños