Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Sculptor best known for the 'Boy with a Dolphin' statue on the Thames in Chelsea and for designing the hands on the fifty-pence piece.
On the island
Eight records
Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622: II. AdagioFavourite
Gervase de Peyer, London Symphony Orchestra, Peter Maag
My first record is what I should put out as my contender as the most beautiful piece of music ever written.
Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125: III. Adagio molto e cantabile
Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer
It was incredibly moving to me as a little boy, this piece of music, particularly.
These ones I've chosen are the ones that again and again move me.
Cello Suite No. 1 in G major, BWV 1007: IV. Sarabande
Now this is pure, pure music.
We've got to come on to my children. I've got four children. The younger two have got a group... Edward plays the lead guitar and Rowley plays the bass guitar.
String Quintet in C major, D. 956: III. Scherzo
Isaac Stern, Alexander Schneider, Milton Katims, Pablo Casals, Paul Tortelier
His amazing music, always, always like a dove at break of day arising, his his pure, pure emotion of love for the world comes through.
The last record is by a very great friend of mine called Chris DeBerg.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:09Your intention, then, is to celebrate living forms, is it?
Yes, um I see the role of sculpture in the world, in the civilized world, as something that will remind people of heaven, really, remind people of another order of reality where all's beauty and all's truth.
Presenter asks
9:02Why did you become a sculptor, David? Was there a point at which might you equally well have been a painter, or was there a moment when you realized you wanted to be three-dimensional?
While I was in the Navy I was very, very interested... in comparative religion... I travelled quite a lot to the monasteries and the um temples in the East, and I came across a very curious thing. That one could learn more about the deep... understanding of the religion... By looking at the sculpture, the ancient sculptures... It was through sculpture.
Presenter asks
12:28Was it [the dons at Cambridge] who told you never to go near art school?
No, they didn't. They rather felt that I should go near an art school. I knew I didn't want to go near an art school... because I think that you cannot teach art any more than you can teach love.
The keepsakes
The luxury
Well if there's no life, I'll take a harmonica. You see, modestly I haven't brought it into the programme before, but I do rather fancy myself on the harmonica.
Presenter asks
13:44How did you get to know [Jacob Epstein]? Was that sheer cheek on your part?
Yep. I just um sent him a note from Trinity College, where I was, and said that I proposed to call on him at ten o'clock the next morning... And I arrived at ten o'clock... And he said to me, Look, if you want me to tell you whether to be a sculptor or not. Don't. And I said... I don't. I am a sculptor and um I'm coming to you for advice.
Presenter asks
24:56How did it work [with your wife Gilly as your muse]?
When I was making a big piece of sculpture... when I got stuck... I would... go out and find out who Jillie was who came in... And she'd stand and look at it and... She said, It's going very well, isn't it? I said, No, it's not going well... She said, Well, Something like. I expect it'll be better when you change that arm... she never said anything which wasn't practical, which couldn't be done.
“I don't think there's anything ugly in the real world.”
“I think that you cannot teach art any more than you can teach love. I think that art is something which is in you or not in you, and can be Helped, encouraged, nurtured by other people, but it can't be taught.”
“I think it's that one has glimpses. of the next level. of existence. And I think it's that which is the beauty and and that's what you love is the The fact that we whether we know it or not, we're s we're just walking in cloud and if we put our heads out it's all magic.”