Artist: Bernard Reynolds
Location: Sculpture green on top of Castle Mall, Norwich (UK)
Description: The sculpture develops the parrot's skull with its characteristic beak into a more abstract and menacing mask.
Description (iconographical): The sculpture was commissioned for the newly created Sculpture Garden above Castle Mall Shopping Centre by the Norfolk Contemporary Art Society in consultation with the garden's designer Georgina Livingston after it was decided that a commission to Peter Logan would be too easy to vandalise. Bernard Reynolds developed the sculpture from an earlier smaller series of Parrot Head sculptures. These were based on Reynolds's drawing of c. 1952 after the skull of Rubio - a macaw which belonged to Cedric Morris. The earliest of these from 1958 was in stone followed by a series in bronzes of 1971 one of which is in the collection of the Castle Museum. Sir Cedric Morris (1889-1892) moved to Suffolk in 1929 and established the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing at nearby Dedham in Essex. A bronze bust of Cedric Morris by Bernard Reynolds from 1973 is Inv 1995.95.1:F in store at Norwich Castle Museum
Installed: 1994
Inscriptions: On plaque on plinth: Parrot head 'RUBIO'/By Bernard Reynolds/Presented by the Norfolk/Contemporary Art Society
