Robert Adams (1917 – 1984) was an English sculptor who developed a Constructivist idiom in his bronzed steel and cast bronze sculptures. Adams received numerous commissions during his lifetime, both reliefs for buildings and free-standing works in public spaces. Gimpel Fils mounted a retrospective in 1993, which prompted the Sunday Independent’s art critic Tim Hilton to rank Adams’ work above that of his contemporaries Kenneth Armitage, Reg Butler, Lynn Chadwick and Bernard Meadows.

Sculptors’ drawings are of especial interest because they convey in two dimensions what the artist will ultimately realise in three. As well as allowing the artist to conceptualise the finished work, such sketches have merit in their own right.

Two early examples of Robert Adams’ work are illustrated here. Both are from 1948 and are untitled sketches for sculptures. One is in blue and the other in green ink. They capture well the artist’s activities at the time, carving in wood sculptures which were slowly moving from semi-figurative to abstract.