Press release Date: Thursday 6 February 2020 Contact: [email protected] / 0207 921 0919 Images: downloadable here
Breaking the Mould: Sculpture by Women since 1945 An Arts Council Collection Touring Exhibition 4 April – 14 June 2020 Longside Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, then touring
(Image Captions L-R: Sarah Lucas, NUD CYCLADIC 7, 2010, Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London Purchased with the assistance of the Art Fund © the artist; Anthea Hamilton, Leg Chair (Jane Birkin), 2011, Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London, © the artist; Barbara Hepworth, Icon, 1957, Arts Council Collection Southbank Centre, London, © Bowness)
Breaking the Mould is the first extensive survey of post-war British sculpture by artists identifying as women in a public institution. Spanning more than seventy years and exploring the work of fifty sculptors, this exhibition provides a radical recalibration, addressing the many accounts of British sculpture that have marginalised women or airbrushed their work out of the art historical canon altogether.
The exhibition opens at Longside Gallery at Yorkshire Sculpture Park (4 April – 14 June 2020, then tours the UK) and comprises just over fifty works ranging from sculpture to installation in a wide-ranging list of materials including hair, ceramic, paper, flowers and salt. Participating artists are: Anthea Alley, Phyllida Barlow, Rana Begum, Helen Chadwick, Alice Channer, Lygia Clark, Shelagh Cluett, Susan Collis, Jane Coyle, Katie Cuddon, Sokari Douglas Camp, Rose Finn-Kelcey, Jessie Flood-Paddock, Elisabeth Frink, Anya Gallaccio, Katherine Gili, Anthea Hamilton, Mona Hatoum, Jann Haworth, Holly Hendry, Barbara Hepworth, Shirazeh Houshiary, Karin Jonzen, Permindar Kaur, Mary Kelly, Liliane Lijn, Kim Lim, Gillian Lowndes, Sarah Lucas, Helen Marten, Mary Martin, Cathy De Monchaux, Lucia Nogueira, Margaret Organ, Emma Park, Cornelia Parker, Amalia Pica, Kathy Prendergast, Eva
Rothschild, Meg Rutherford, Veronica Ryan, Grace Schwindt, Wendy Taylor, Hayley Tompkins, Shelagh Wakely, Rebecca Warren, Rachel Whiteread, Alison Wilding and Rosemary Young.
All of the works in this exhibition have been selected from the Arts Council Collection, managed by Southbank Centre, which holds more than 250 sculptures by over 150 women. The selected works highlight the Collection’s long-term commitment to women working in sculpture and the strength and diversity of a wide range of practices. Many of the represented artists have challenged ingrained notions of sculpture as a ‘male occupation’ by embracing new materials, subjects and approaches. Others have avoided institutional bias by producing work for alternative spaces or the public domain.
The first work by a sculptor to be purchased for the Collection was a drawing by Barbara Hepworth, Reconstruction (1947), which is included in the exhibition alongside her wooden sculpture Icon, 1957. Since then, sculpture by women has been consistently acquired for the Collection. There are several new acquisitions from the Collection which are being displayed to the public for the very first time in this exhibition, these include Katie Cuddon’s A Problem of Departure, 2013, a ceramic sculpture of a pillow clasped between dimpled thighs; as well as Rose Finn-Kelcey’s God's Bog, 2001, a toilet cast in Jesmonite curling delicately like a seashell. The exhibition also offers an opportunity to see several works that have not been on public display for some time, including works by Wendy Taylor and Sokari Douglas Camp.
The works in Breaking the Mould are arranged into three loose, thematic sections: Figured, Formed and Found. These broad themes enable a range of shared concerns to emerge across time, space and material. A number of the accompanying labels have been written by a range of contributors including fellow artists, curators and community groups. These voices highlight the need for sustained collective action to broaden representation within the field of sculpture. The group show celebrates the strengths of sculpture made by women but also seeks to guard against the threat of this work slipping out of view. Through this deliberately restorative act, the exhibition seeks to inspire future generations, supporting the maxim ‘if she can see it she can be it’.
Jill Constantine, Head of Arts Council Collection, says: “We are thrilled to be presenting Breaking the Mould, this remarkable touring exhibition is the first of its kind, and provides a timely reminder of the significant contribution women have made to this particular art form. Breaking the Mould also asserts Arts Council Collection’s ambition to increase the lending of sculpture by women across the UK, to museums, galleries, schools, universities, heritage sites and other public spaces.”
Breaking the Mould has been initiated in response to Women Working in Sculpture from 1960 to the Present Day: Towards a New Lexicon, a research project led by Catherine George (University of Coventry) and Hilary Gresty (independent).
Breaking the Mould is accompanied by a fully-illustrated publication produced by Hayward Publishing, featuring an essay on the subject by Natalie Rudd, Senior Curator of the Arts Council Collection, and curator of the exhibition, alongside complementary texts from artists, writers and curators exploring the practices of over forty British sculptors, presenting fresh critical thinking on
the subject. The book also features a timeline, highlighting key events and developments over the last seventy years.
The exhibition is also supported by a range of resources and activities for everyone and a series of engaging events at Longside Gallery during the course of the show.
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For further press information or to request hi-res images please contact: Filipa Mendes, Press Manager, [email protected] / 0207 921 0919
TOUR DATES & VENUES
4 April – 14 June 2020 Longside Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park
3 July - 6 September 2020 The New Art Gallery Walsall
25 September 2020 - 23 January 2021 The Levinsky Gallery, The Arts Institute, University of Plymouth
27 March – 20 June 2021 Djanogly Gallery, Lakeside Arts, University of Nottingham
3 July - 3 October 2021 Ferens Art Gallery, Hull
CATALOGUE:
Breaking the Mould: Sculpture by Women since 1945 RRP £14.99 Paperback 112 pages 229 x 152mm ISBN 9781853323676 Design by Narrate shop.southbankcentre.co.uk
Notes to Editors
About Arts Council Collection The Arts Council Collection is a national loan collection of British art from 1946 to the present day. With over 8,000 works and more than 1,000 loans made to over 100 venues a year, it is seen by millions of people in public spaces from galleries and museums to hospitals, libraries and universities. Representing one of the most important collections of British modern and contemporary art in the world, it includes work from Barbara Hepworth, Tracey Emin and Henry Moore to Mona Hatoum, Anish Kapoor and Grayson Perry. The Collection supports and promotes British artists by acquiring art at an early stage of their careers. The Arts Council Collection is managed by Southbank Centre, London and includes the Sculpture Centre located at Longside, Yorkshire Sculpture Park. www.artscouncilcollection.org.uk
About Yorkshire Sculpture Park Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) is one of the best places in Europe to experience modern and contemporary sculpture in the open air. We host work by some of the world’s most well-known artists from Yorkshire-born Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth to Phyllida Barlow, Damien Hirst, Ai Weiwei and many other major international and emerging artists across 500 acres of 18th century designed landscape and six galleries. We welcome 500,000 visitors every year to enjoy
and experience art, the landscape and our heritage, and organise events for families, schools and community groups for over 40,000 people. Founded in 1977, YSP is an independent charitable trust and registered museum. www.ysp.org.uk
About Arts Council England Arts Council England champions, develops and invests in artistic and cultural experiences that enrich people’s lives. Arts Council England supports a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries – from theatre to digital art, reading to dance, music to literature, and crafts to collections. www.artscouncil.org.uk
About Southbank Centre Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest arts centre, occupying a 17 acre site that sits in the midst of London’s most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames. The site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Southbank Centre is home to the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery as well as The National Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection. For further information please visit www.southbankcentre.co.uk.