Reg Butler 1913-1981
The Tall Box, 1953
bronze
15¼ by 8 by 6¼ inches
edition number 1/5, this is the only work cast during the artist?s lifetimestamped with monogram and numbered on underside of plinth

Provenance
Curt Valentin Gallery, New York
David Thompson Collection, Pittsburgh
Private Collection, Berlin

Exhibited
Hanover, Reg Butler, April -June 1954, cat.no.22 (exhibited as 'Box')
New York, Curt Valentin Gallery, Reg Butler, January 11 - February 5 1955, cat.no.20 (exhibited as 'Box')

Literature
Margaret Garlake, The Sculpture of Reg Butler, Henry Moore Foundation/Lund Humphries, 2006, cat no.128, illus fig.



In 1953 Butler won first prize in an international competition for a monument to the Unknown Political Prisoner, which culminated in a working model (h. 2.24 m, 1955-6; coll.Tate Gallery). It was never realized at its full envisaged height of 18 m. Its thin skeletal forms encasing a highly stylized figure create an abstract box-like structure reminiscent of the early work of Alberto Giacometti.