Monday 22 October 2012

YSP - The Anthonys



In the summer holidays, a friend and I spent a day at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. I'd been wanting to visit for a while and I wasn't disappointed.

These few posts aim to give you a flavour of just some of what was on offer.



Promenade is a piece by Anthony Caro (b 1924). Trained as an engineer as well as a sculptor, Caro created this sculpture from steel, originally for the Les Tuilleries gardens in Paris.

As its name suggests, the sculpture is designed to be promenaded along and around and between and within. If you look carefully, you can just see the legs of a child disappearing into one of the structures.



Standing high above the woodland floor is this sculpture by Anthony Gormley (b 1950) who is most famous for his piece 'The Angel of the North'. This figure is entitled 'One and Other' and is a study of Gormley's concerns with isolation and claustrophobia.


The absence of features makes the figure universal.

This is the second location for the piece in YSP. When the original site became unstable, the sculpture was brought back to ground level and Gormley himself visited the park to choose the new location, believing the positioning to be of vital importance to the statement of the figure.


Sunday 21 October 2012

YSP - Paolozzi



In the summer holidays, a friend and I spent a day at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. I'd been wanting to visit for a while and I wasn't disappointed.

These few posts aim to give you a flavour of just some of what was on offer.


Sir Eduado Luigi Paolozzi (1924 -2005) was a Scot, born in Edinburgh of Italian descent. His sculptures are an exploration of how we can fit into the modern world - combining the biological with the mechanistic, showing both the confusion and creativity of modern society. As well as sculpture, he experimented with printmaking and collage. His works include the mosaic design on the walls of Tottenham Court Road tube station in London.


These aluminium pieces were originally made as a children's playground; a place where they could hide and climb and imagine.

I expect that this quizzical little fellow was quite popular :)



Thursday 18 October 2012

YSP - Frink


In the summer holidays, a friend and I spent a day at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. I'd been wanting to visit for a while and I wasn't disappointed.

These few posts aim to give you a flavour of just some of what was on offer.


Back in bronze, Running Man is by Dame Elizabeth Frink, a British artist born in Suffolk in 1930 (d 1993).

I love the fluidity of the piece.


Also by her are these white faced men


Her 'Man - Folded Arms' 1970, has blurred facial features which remind me of the Star Trek DS9 'Founders'.

I don't think I'd want any of these in my garden :)

Tuesday 16 October 2012

YSP - Big Bertie



In the summer holidays, a friend and I spent a day at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. I'd been wanting to visit for a while and I wasn't disappointed.

These few posts aim to give you a flavour of just some of what was on offer.


Come on, admit it! You'd love to climb up onto his back too!


Known as Big Bertie, this rocking horse was carved by Anthony Dew at the Rocking Horse Shop near York. Originally, it was on show at Tatton Park in Cheshire, commissioned as part of a performance called 'The Horse is a Noble Animal' in which artist Marcia Farquhar presented a monologue from the horse's back.


The detail around the head is beautiful.

Friday 12 October 2012

YSP - Borofsky


In the summer holidays, a friend and I spend a day at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. I'd been wanting to visit for a while and I wasn't disappointed.

These few posts aim to give you a flavour of just some of what was on offer.


Jonathan Borofsky's first Molecule Man sculptures were made in 1977-8 in Los Angeles and were inspired by the idea that humans are made of molecules; mostly composed of water and air.

Now, there are molecule man sculptures in locations around the world, including one standing 100 feet tall, on the banks of the Spree River, Berlin which once marked the division between East and West.

The three men coming together represent molecules joining to form our existence.

Borofsky  is an American sculptor, born in Boston Massachusetts in 1942.

Wednesday 10 October 2012

YSP - Miro

In the summer holidays, a friend and I spend a day at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. I'd been wanting to visit for a while and I wasn't disappointed.

These few posts aim to give you a flavour of just some of what was on offer.


Beginning with Joan Miro i Ferra (1893-1983), a Catalan painter and sculptor.


His desire was that his sculptures should blend in with nature; be confused with roots, mountains, plants, flowers.


This work in bronze is entitled 'Maternite'.


'Personnage'


I have to say that, although I'd find it hard to mistake these for elements of nature, I do find them quite appealing.



They have a childlike simplicity.

I know which of these is my favourite. What about you? Do you like these? Which of them do you prefer?