For so long Ante Dabro has been called a sculptural dinosaur that he now
rejoices in the title. So why does a highly skilled and highly trained
sculptor, the master of every style and technique, insist on working in
the style of the Italian Renaissance? The answer is that to Dabro, every
sculpture must speak to humanity, which means that it must be an element
of humanity. If it does not, the sculptor has failed. Working with
female models he has throughout his long life, he has sought to portray
an essence of femininity, and therefore an essence of humanity.
Dabro believes that the ability to see what other people don't see is a
real gift. He says 'It's like a star wheeling round the earth,
fertilising the imagination as it goes'. This book explores the
different ways he has tried to liberate an essence of humankind,
releasing the soul of a human form from its imprisoning substance,
whether it be from wood, marble, stone or plaster.
The forces that have driven women and men together for eons are
reflected here in breathtaking diversity in many different sculptures,
from a loving kiss in one to the moment of orgasm in another, from an
exquisite sculpture of his daughter to an extraordinarily brutal
depiction of sexual assault.
The mysterious subtitle - to still the midnight sea in the blood - is
reflected as a driving principle of his work. His art reveals that we
humans, even those forming the form the tight-knit crew of a battleship,
are each one ultimately alone. Even those of the same family struggle
towards a solitary and private goal. Never will they reach it. They
perhaps never share it and may not even be aware of what it is. Yet the
struggle must continue because that is the nature of our humanity. That
is the complexity revealed in Dabro's sculptures.
The author, one of Australia's best known historians and biographers,
like Dabro, wants our imaginations to soar and rejoice in the creative
spirit which has driven his sculptures for more than sixty years. Read's
purpose is not so much to celebrate Dabro's every work but to magnify
the creative act, that leap into the abyss, that sustains Dabro's vision
and that of every artist since humans first walked upon the earth.
