One of Australia’s most significant sculptors of the late 20th-century, Clement Meadmore, has massive public sculptures around the globe, including North America, Canada, Japan, Mexico and Taiwan. Yet, despite his success as a sculptor, Meadmore was not an art school graduate. Instead, after a brief stint studying aeronautical engineering, he completed a degree in industrial design at Melbourne Technical College (now RMIT University). His understanding of proportion and balance in complex three-dimensional forms is underpinned by a deep interest in design’s intangible and aesthetic aspects—particularly the flow and tension in geometric forms.
While simultaneously creating sculptures—first in wood, later in welded steel—Meadmore quickly demonstrated an ability to design affordable furniture that captured the global zeitgeist. In 1952 and in his early twenties, he released the Corded chair, a fine steel…
