Enter the Minds of Great Artists

Henry Moore's 'Reclining Figures'. Photograph by Lucy Sabin

The Hepworth Wakefield gallery airs artistic content like fresh laundry.

Located in the heart of a thriving arts scene, with Yorkshire Sculpture Park and the Henry Moore Institute nearby, the Hepworth Wakefield promises a thought-provoking, cultural experience. Spacious and modern, the site houses a range of contemporary artwork, covering mediums from watercolour to sculpting, and sketching to photography. Each exhibition is curated to display not just the completed artworks, but the creative processes which gave rise to them.

The gallery currently hosts a number of exhibitions which explore diverse areas of creative investigation. Henry Moore’s Reclining Figures demonstrates the great interest the artist had in the reclining pose; a third of his life’s work is based around this concept. The exhibition is a display of artistic exploration and experimentation; it combines wooden sculptures from Wakefield’s own collection with some of Moore’s preliminary sketches, as well as an impressive bronze work currently on loan from The Henry Moore Foundation. The scale of his work is reflective of the issues he encountered when working with his primary medium, elmwood. He is quoted as claiming that the material is ‘not a happy choice for small sculptures, but in a large reclining figure the horizontal grain emphasises the horizontal pose’. Evidently, Moore was right: the striking nature of the sculptures demonstrates his resolution to work with his materials to create bold and interesting artwork.

Part of the 'Hepworth at Work' exhibition. Lucy Sabin.

The ‘Hepworth at Work’ exhibition featured an amalgamation of sketches, prototypes, and experiments from Hepworth’s workshop. The collection is fascinating; working models, many in plaster, offer insights into her creative process, and the gallery is set up to emulate a studio environment. The exhibition is intellectually stimulating, as well as pleasing to the eye. Quotes from the artist are printed on the walls; enigmatic phrases like ‘I, the sculptor, am the landscape’ assert the imaginative power which the all-consuming artist revelled in. The collection of models for her complex piece, Maquette, Theme and Variations was particularly captivating. It displays individual shapes from her final piece, as well as a completed plaster mock-up; a quote nearby explains the process as being like ‘building a boat’, while plastering the skeleton of the piece as ‘covering the bones with skin and muscles’. The space possesses an inexplicable, creative energy which is harnessed by the emotive works in its midst.

Albert Wainwright's sketchbooks. Lucy Sabin.

‘In Focus: Albert Wainwright’ gave detailed insight into the mind of this lesser-known artist and friend of Henry Moore. Wainwright’s attention to line and form complements his works – intuitive and creative responses to the wide range of influences he was exposed to throughout his life. The Hepworth Wakefield displays a selection of his sketchbooks – intriguing insights into the social, political and economic changes taking place between 1927 and 1938 – as well as a collection of letters, postcards and miscellaneous workings. The exhibition is distinctive in providing visitors with an insight into the mind of the artist, much like with ‘Hepworth at Work’. Having had no previous knowledge of Wainwright’s work, I found the exhibition enlightening in its way of opening viewers’ eyes to the work of lesser-known, ‘neglected’ artists who draw from a huge range of influences to create truly brilliant work.

By far my favourite exhibition of the gallery, however, was a compilation of Philip-Lorca diCorcia’s photography. It is uncommon to see such a varied sample of photographic art in a museum; it is not difficult, however, to understand why diCorcia’s work is currently on display. The gallery has a number of the artist’s projects on show, spanning a period of four decades. The earliest, ‘A Storybook Life’, invites visitors to enter a world of imaginary narratives in which the models are drawn from his own life. This concept of crossing the boundary between “fiction” and reality is explored further in his most recent and ongoing work, ‘East of Eden’. His documentary-style photographs in this series portray everyday images with fictitious connotations, particularly in relation to Genesis and the fall of Adam and Eve. Two more series, ‘Streetwork’ and ‘Lucky 13’, depict scenes from the lives of individual people; in the former, citizens are poignantly captured in their day-to-day activities, whilst the latter consists of almost life-sized, purposely unedited portraits of pole dancers in mid-performance. In a similar vein, ‘Hustlers’ depicts male prostitutes in theatrical settings, with their names, age, and hometown. The various prices diCorcia paid for each one to agree to pose for the photo add an extra twist as the titles. The striking thing about diCorcia’s work is its ability to portray the realistic and the dramatic in one single, captivating photograph.

The Hepworth Wakefield is open from 10am to 5pm Tuesday to Sunday, and is free to visit. It is worth taking time to explore the entire site, making sure to look outside at the surroundings too – you might find some unexpected sights on looking out of a window. The way in which the gallery allows visitors to venture into the minds of great artists and experience the dynamism involved in producing contemporary artwork is truly unique.

Originally published at The Bubble.

A Stroll in Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Turning off the road into Yorkshire Sculpture Park, the otherworldliness of the site immediately becomes apparent. The ‘gallery without walls’ is spread over the 500-acre Bretton Estate, a rural park graced by stunning architecture, including the Palladian mansion built in 1720. Nestled in amongst the expansive woodlands and presiding over the lake you’ll find an abundance of contemporary open-air art. Although it would have been impossible to explore the entire park during the short time I had there, the sample I did see manifested an enchanting array of innovative ideas and artistic concepts.

Magdalena Abakanowicz, 'Ten Seated Figure'

Magdalena Abakanowicz’s striking piece Ten Seated Figures, at a glance, appears to incarnate a council or panel; the aura of the piece is certainly authoritarian, echoing the Decalogue. Take a step closer, though, and the Polish artist’s figures take on a more ominous presence. The scale of Abakanowicz’s work reflects her desire to create art as ‘a form of existence’, and indeed the seated figures have a level of bearing in the space they occupy. Whilst from afar they appear uniform, and almost completely identical, the rough casting of iron noticed upon a closer look invites visitors to observe the differences between each seated form of the sculpture. On a plaque detailing information on the piece, Abakanowicz is quoted as wanting to ‘bewitch the crowd’, and indeed the sense of ambiguity surrounding the work draws many of the park’s visitors towards it. The sense of formality from the alignment of the figures evokes a sense of threat, and even fear, in the viewer. The work follows on from a previous project of the artist’s, ‘Abakans’, which concerns itself primarily with crowds and a sense of aggression that is evidently still prevalent in some of her large-scale sculpture work today.

Sophie Ryder, 'Sitting'

To turn away from Abakanowicz’s work is to be confronted almost immediately with Sophie Ryder’s reflective sculpture, Sitting. Her anthropomorphic figure sits facing out towards the expanses of art and nature across the park. With the body of a woman and the head of a hare, the work embodies the complexities of emotion and the human condition. Ryder’s choice to work with wire for this piece is perhaps responsible for its intricate nature, and goes some way towards expressing her belief in emotion as a facet of all living creatures. The powerful yet contemplative pose of the figure is somewhat disturbed by the fissure running down the middle of the sculpture, exposing the hollow insides of the ‘Lady-Hare’. This feature remains unexplained; whether it has symbolic meaning, or is a structural design for a different purpose, the sculpture remains largely open to interpretation.

Sol LeWitt, '123454321'

Further from the YSL Centre, placed alongside the lake, stands Sol LeWitt’s 123454321, the concept of which I found particularly interesting. LeWitt identifies that ‘the system is the work of art; the visual work of art is the proof of the system,’ and his aptly-named piece reflects this theory completely. The sculpture is comprised by a set of cubes, which increase in size by one brick width-ways and two bricks length-ways – a ratio of 1:1:2 – before declining in size again. Clearly, the mathematical and structural planning behind the work is the beauty of the piece; the ability for logic and numbers to create order and near perfection is the ‘work of art’ to which LeWitt alludes. At first, the structure seems unnatural in relation to its surroundings, but the accompanying description highlights mathematics’ foundation in natural patterns, including the detail in the formation of trees. Regrettably, 123454321 is LeWitt’s only sculpture in any public landscape space in Britain; more of his structures can, however, be found in the Tate Modern in London.

Marialuisa Tadei,'Octopus'

Marialuisa Tadei’s colourful sculptures, Night and Day and Octopus, stand out amongst many others due to the ethereal nature of the works. Using mosaic, the pieces appear almost technological in character against the natural setting of the park. It is clear that they would look extraordinary in sunny weather; they are decorated with coloured glass and with the movement of light, as the accompanying information reads, radiate an almost mystical energy. One feels as though the pieces were created in order to cross boundaries, and indeed there is an otherworldliness to the art forms that gives a sense of being both tangible and spiritual. The artist, in many ways, transforms the ancient technique into a contemporary creative interpretation of the modern age by recreating a ‘pixelated’ image in three dimensions. I find that I rarely see contemporary mosaic pieces in the art galleries I have been to; it was exciting, therefore, to see two fine examples of the medium together with insightful explanations of Tadei’s motives.

Dennis Oppenheim, 'Trees: From Alternative Landscape Components'

Dennis Oppenheim’s curious exhibition Trees: From Alternative Landscape Components was perhaps one of the most outstanding works in the park. Walking away from the lakeside towards them, the trees appear almost eerie – leafless, metallic structures standing together in an open park. In reality, though, they are thoughtful, unique displays of artwork that address the relationship between artificial and natural materials. At the end of each ‘branch’ is a household artefact, and no two trees are the same. Dog kennels, toilets, dustbins and pieces of fence are amongst a large number of items that constitute this artificial landscape; a visitor to the museum is confronted with the concept of synthetic nature in an estate that prides itself upon its rural surroundings.

Anthony Caro, ‘Promenade'

I did not manage to view the whole of Yorkshire Sculpture Park because of the sheer expanse of its grounds and the wealth of artwork available. Spend a whole day there, if possible, to allow time to explore the grounds and the artwork without being pressed for time. The site holds sculptures for everyone: the pieces mentioned in this article are but a small representation of the variety in the park. Experimental pieces such Julian Opie’s electronic piece, Galloping Horse, and Peter Liversidge’s realised proposal, Everything is Connected, stand alongside the work of more well-known artists like Antony Gormley and Barbara Hepworth. The area of the park I was privileged enough to see was a hub of creative investigation which charmed and rendered pensive the inquisitive visitors; I would highly recommend paying a visit.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park, West Bretton, Wakefield, WF4 4LG

http://www.ysp.org.uk/

Admission: free (parking charges apply)

Photographs are my own unless otherwise stated.

Originally published at The Bubble.