AMP Building - Circular Quay - Sydney
AMP was formed in 1849 as the Australian Mutual Provident Society in the days of bushrangers and the gold rush, as a non-profit life insurance company. It was demutualised in 1998 The emblem adopted by the AMP was Amicus Certus in re Incerta, translating as ‘a true friend in uncertain times’. It represents the value of insurance in daily family life.
The image initially was of a maternal ‘Goddess of Plenty’ with a palm of victory in one hand and a cornucopia in the other side, flanked by a man and a woman and infant whom she would protect, thereby conveying the idea of a faithful friend. In 1960 the new building at Sydney Cove, Circular Quay required a new emblem. Tom Bass was asked to redesign the traditional emblem for the context of this new building. In his concept of Amicus Certus in re Incerta, Bass redesigned the Goddess of Plenty, the central figure, as a modern, almost sensual being and there was some discomfort about this re-interpretation of the previous maternal looking woman.
Bass argued that the modern woman needed to be represented and her abstract forms are typical of his figurative work. There is also a particularly Australian quality to the man, a farmer and the mother and child, from the cornucopia generous quantities of vegetables pour forth. Her left hand rests on the single mother. Originally modelled in clay it was then cast by a Copper deposit electrolytic process that Bass had evolved in the 50’s to cast his body of large public sculptures.
To this day, the Sydney Cove building remains the Australian headquarters of AMP. AMP Sculpture 1962 at AMP Building Circular Quay 33 Alfred Street, Sydney
Source: Tom Bass School website
AMP Building - Circular Quay - Sydney
AMP was formed in 1849 as the Australian Mutual Provident Society in the days of bushrangers and the gold rush, as a non-profit life insurance company. It was demutualised in 1998 The emblem adopted by the AMP was Amicus Certus in re Incerta, translating as ‘a true friend in uncertain times’. It represents the value of insurance in daily family life.
The image initially was of a maternal ‘Goddess of Plenty’ with a palm of victory in one hand and a cornucopia in the other side, flanked by a man and a woman and infant whom she would protect, thereby conveying the idea of a faithful friend. In 1960 the new building at Sydney Cove, Circular Quay required a new emblem. Tom Bass was asked to redesign the traditional emblem for the context of this new building. In his concept of Amicus Certus in re Incerta, Bass redesigned the Goddess of Plenty, the central figure, as a modern, almost sensual being and there was some discomfort about this re-interpretation of the previous maternal looking woman.
Bass argued that the modern woman needed to be represented and her abstract forms are typical of his figurative work. There is also a particularly Australian quality to the man, a farmer and the mother and child, from the cornucopia generous quantities of vegetables pour forth. Her left hand rests on the single mother. Originally modelled in clay it was then cast by a Copper deposit electrolytic process that Bass had evolved in the 50’s to cast his body of large public sculptures.
To this day, the Sydney Cove building remains the Australian headquarters of AMP. AMP Sculpture 1962 at AMP Building Circular Quay 33 Alfred Street, Sydney
Source: Tom Bass School website