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Robin Buick
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culptor Robin Buick's central concern is to preserve the values, concepts
and traditions of Classicism from a merciless (and continuing) assault by Modernist aesthetics. Buick achieves this through the production of beguiling sculptures of Classical beauty - art works conceived in strict accordance with the proven systems, techniques and standards laid down by
antiquity. Buick is determinedly perfectionist in his execution and defiantly revolutionary in the visionary agenda of his mission. In his thesis, The loss of the Classical Tradition in Art, Buick states: "It is my ambition to be involved in a European revival of Classical sculpture... to rebuild Classicism would undermine the art theory of Modernism... and (thereby) the Avant Garde hammer of destruction." Certainly, as we enter the 21st century, Classicism can have no greater champion or more eloquent exponent than Robin Buick. Buick's figures resonate with the poise, finesse, authority and the artistic veracity of the Classical masters - frequently recalling such exemplars as Robin, Michelangelo and del Verrochio.
However, if Mr. Buick will permit me a slight heresy, I would venture to suggest that his work additionally provides a unique forum in which Classicism and Modernism meet not as implacable enemies but as valuable partners in the production of true fine art for our modern age. For, Robin Buick is far more than a mere imitator or slavish disciple to rigid techniques of the past. Rather, Buick uses the established foundations of Classicism to create high quality work that is in no way anachronistic or retrospective but vibrantly and distinctly of its own era. For example, where Classical figures have often been routinely idealised - Buick's most
certainly have not. Instead, Buick's figures are real everyday people - with real, everyday anatomies - and they are no less impressive for that. Furthermore, Buick is himself an independent master of form and movement - as works including Bacchanal Circle, Dancing Couple, Bacchante With Grapes and Lynda With Twin Flutes amply testify. Clearly, the future of Classical sculpture is in safe - and accomplished - hands.
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