Linked Figures / Aristophanes on Eros

The third edition of The Nobile Folios explores Linked Figures, a marvellous multilayered bronze conceived early in Kenneth Armitage’s career, yet a work that in many ways captures his complete oeuvre. Two figures as one (or perhaps one figure as two) play against each other creating, simultaneously, harmony and discord.

Set alongside Aristophanes’ celebrated speech on the origin of love in Plato’s Symposium, the folio is an audacious attempt to reflect and to recreate on paper the inherent tension of this highly-textured three- dimensional work. It does so by means of bold photography and stimulating layout, and, of course, through the juxtaposition of words. The great Athenian playwright—who thought that originally humans were brawny globular creatures equipped with four hands, four legs, two faces on a circular neck, and comprised of three sexes—creates a magnificent and entertaining backdrop that allows a fresh reading of Linked Figures.