MAKING IT: SCULPTURE IN BRITAIN 1977–1986 Richard Deacon A TOURING EXHIBITION FROM THE ARTS COUNCIL COLLECTION The Eye Has It, 1984 Arts Council Collection, 1 April – 21 June 2015 Southbank Centre, London © the artist Photo Anna Arca The late 1970s and 1980s witnessed the emergence of a younger generation of artists working in the United Kingdom who began to receive international attention for practices which, although incredibly diverse, share a revived interest in the sculpted object, in materials, and in ideas around production procedures. Making It is the first exhibition to survey this exciting moment in British sculpture. It shows how approaches to object making were reinvigorated by the breakthroughs in conceptual and performance art made by preceding generations and by sculptural and cultural inspirations from beyond these shores. Curated by Dr Jon Wood (Research Curator, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds) and Senior Collection Curator, Natalie Rudd the exhibition is drawn primarily from the holdings of the Arts Council Collection and complimented with major loans from important UK public and private collections. This substantial exhibition, embraces a wide range of sculptural practices, highlighting shared concerns, as well as important differences, between and within established groups, and enabling the work of a younger generation to be presented alongside that of both lesser known and older, more established figures. Artists represented in Making It: Edward Allington, Eric Bainbridge, Phyllida Barlow, Kate Blacker, Boyle Family, Tony Carter, Helen Chadwick, Shelagh Cluett, John Cobb, Stephen Cox, Tony Cragg, Michael Craig-Martin, John Davies, Paul de Monchaux, Richard Deacon, Kenneth Draper, Gareth Fisher, Barry Flanagan, John Gibbons, Antony Gormley, Nigel Hall, Shirazeh Houshiary, Anish Kapoor, George Meyrick, Tony Cragg, George and the Dragon, 1984. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © the artist Photo Anna Arca David Nash, Martin Naylor, Paul Neagu, Julian Opie, Margaret Organ, Eduardo Paolozzi, Cornelia Parker, Carl Plackman, Nicholas Pope, Peter Randall-Page, Veronica Ryan, Michael Sandle, Jean-Luc Vilmouth, Shelagh Wakely, Richard Wentworth, Alison Wilding, Glynn Williams, Richard Wilson, Gary Woodley and Bill Woodrow. Jill Constantine, Head of the Arts Council Collection said: “Making It captures the breadth and vitality of the sculpture being produced in this country during this period. Many of these artists went on to achieve international recognition and acclaim and their influence is very much in evidence on younger artists today. We are grateful to the many artists and curators who have contributed to the exhibition and catalogue as we are to our future tour partners” Dr Jon Wood co-curator said: “Making It offers an opportunity to look again at this imaginative and materially resourceful period for sculpture. It considers individual achievements within a larger context in which commonalities and differences of approach emerge, that were sometimes less visible at the time. In these years, artists turned to ‘sculpture’, using objects, found materials, colour, images, humour, figuration and narrative, whilst asking searching questions of their own practices and processes.” The exhibition is accompanied by a new fully illustrated publication with an essay by Dr Jon Wood and firsthand accounts by twelve leading critics, writers, gallerists and curators who made a significant contribution to the development of the British art scene during this period. Making It is an Arts Council Collection touring exhibition, which launches at Longside Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park before touring to Mead Arts Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre, University of Warwick (8 October–29 December 2015) and City Art Centre, Edinburgh (7 May–3 June 2016). The Arts Council Collection is managed by Southbank Centre, London. We are grateful to the Henry Moore Institute for their research support and for making available the rich resources of the Henry Moore Institute Research Library. The Henry Moore Institute will stage a related conference in 2015. NOTES TO EDITORS ABOUT ARTS COUNCIL COLLECTION AND SOUTHBANK CENTRE The Arts Council Collection is one of Britain’s foremost national collections of post-war British Art. As a collection ‘‘without walls’’, it has no permanent gallery; it can be seen on long term loan to museums, galleries, schools, hospitals, colleges and charitable associations and in touring exhibitions and displays at home and abroad. It is also, importantly, the most widely circulated and easily accessible collection of its kind, with nearly 8000 works available for loan. It is run by Southbank Centre on behalf of Arts Council England. Established in 1946 to promote and enrich knowledge of contemporary art, the Collection continues to acquire works by artists, many at an early stage of their career, living and working in Britain and to foster the widest possible access to modern and contemporary across the UK. It includes work by Francis Bacon, Tracey Emin, Lucian Freud, Antony Gormley, Barbara Hepworth, David Hockney, Anish Kapoor, Henry Moore, Bridget Riley and Wolfgang Tillmans. Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest arts centre, occupying a 21-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 the Hayward Gallery as well as The Saison Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection. ABOUT LONGSIDE GALLERY AND THE SCULPTURE CENTRE Longside Gallery at Yorkshire Sculpture Park is a unique space for exhibitions, used on an alternating basis by the Arts Council Collection and Yorkshire Sculpture Park. It is located adjacent to the Sculpture Centre which houses the Arts Council Collection’s sculpture holdings. The Centre enables the Arts Council Collection to extend its conservation and research programmes and to increase access to the sculpture collection through exhibitions at venues across the UK. Since Longside Gallery opened in 2003, the Arts Council Collection has presented a range of innovative and critically- acclaimed exhibitions including: Antony Gormley: Field for the British Isles (2005), 60: Sixty Years of Sculpture in the Arts Council Collection (2006), Unpopular Culture: Grayson Perry selects from the Arts Council Collection (2009), Structure & Material: Claire Barclay, Becky Beasley, Karla Black (2011), Flashback: Anish Kapoor (2012), Garth Evans: An Arts Council Collection exhibition selected by Richard Deacon (2013) and Uncommon Ground: Land Art in Britain 1966–1979 (2014). Yorkshire Sculpture Park has staged major monographic exhibitions at Longside Gallery by artists including Winter/Hörbelt (2004), Andy Goldsworthy (2007), Sophie Ryder (2008), David Nash (2010), Aeneas Wilder (2011), Lucy + Jorge Orta (2013) and Fiona Banner (2014). 2015 also brings a major exhibition to celebrate and commemorate the extraordinary career of Sir Anthony Caro (18 July–1 November 2015). ABOUT YORKSHIRE SCULPTURE PARK Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) is the leading international centre for modern and contemporary sculpture. It is an independent charitable trust and registered museum (number 1067908) situated in the 500-acre, 18th-century Bretton Hall estate in West Yorkshire. Founded in 1977 by Executive Director Peter Murray, YSP was the first sculpture park in the UK, and is the largest of its kind in Europe, providing the only place in the world to see Barbara Hepworth’s The Family of Man in its entirety alongside a significant collection of sculpture, including site-specific works by Andy Goldsworthy, David Nash and James Turrell and open-air works by Anthony Caro, Elisabeth Frink and Ai Weiwei. YSP also mounts a world-class, year-round temporary exhibitions programme including some of the world’s leading artists across five indoor galleries and the open air. Recent highlights include exhibitions by Fiona Banner, Ai Weiwei, Ursula von Rydingsvard, Amar Kanwar, Yinka Shonibare MBE, Joan Miró and Jaume Plensa. YSP is Art Fund Museum of the Year 2014. Upcoming exhibitions include Henry Moore: Back to a Land (7 March–6 September 2015) and Laura de Santillana and Alessandro Diaz de Santillana (2 May–6 September 2015). YSP’s core work is made possible by investment from Arts Council England, Wakefield Council, the Liz and Terry Bramall Foundation and Sakurako and William Fisher. FOR PRESS ENQUIRIES CONTACT: For media enquiries about Arts Council Collection please contact: Helena Zedig | [email protected] | +44 (0)20 7921 0847 or Filipa Mendes | [email protected] | +44 (0)20 7921 0672 For media enquiries about Yorkshire Sculpture Park please contact: Abigail Varian, Sutton PR | [email protected] | +44 (0)207 183 3577 or Kerry Chase | [email protected] | +44 (0)1924 832515.