rogramme P 2011 — 2012
HENRY MOORE INSTITUTE
2011 — 2012
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Welcome to the Henry Moore Institute’s yearly programme.Through exhibitions, conferences, discussions, publications, collections, research and, perhaps most importantly, the sharing of ideas, the Institute is the first stop for those interested in the ways in which sculpture reverberates with the world in which we live. Our 2011 season of exhibitions launches with Savage Messiah: The Creation of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, an exhibition highlighting the extraordinary ways that the life of the sculptor Gaudier-Brzeska entered mainstream culture. In the 1930s the collector H.S. Ede told the story of his life in a biographical novel, and in the
exhibition of Merz’s work in Britain for over twenty five years, we present two filmic portraits of the artist by Gerry Schum and Tacita Dean. In addition to solo exhibitions, the Institute presents group exhibitions proposing how we might define the sculptural object.This season closes with United Enemies, an exhibition that eruditely draws together positions in British sculpture in the 1960s and 1970s that, in their own time, were seen as incompatible. Alongside our changing programme of exhibitions, conferences and events, the Institute is the home to a world-class library and an ever-expanding archive of sculptors’ papers, and we manage Leeds Museums & Galleries collection of sculpture. In 2011, our collection-based displays in the Sculpture Study Galleries present a new acquisition of early computer-generated works on paper by Darrell Viner and a solo exhibition of sculptures, drawings and sketchbooks by Shelagh Cluett.
The Institute is the first stop for those interested in the ways in which sculpture reverberates with the world in which we live. 1970s British film director Ken Russell directed an eponymous film. Working with Kettle’s Yard, the Institute is publishing a new academic edition of the book, and Ken Russell will introduce his rarely screened film at Hyde Park Picture House. Our exhibition programme has established a history of significant solo shows with artists whose work resonates with the present: in 2011 two exhibitions by influential European artists, Jean-Marc Bustamante and Mario Merz, ask questions of how we might understand sculpture today. Alongside this first solo
Cover image: Mario Merz, ‘Objet Cache -Toi’, 1968 Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Photo: Helge Mundt © Mario Merz/SIAE/DACS, London 2011
Open seven days a week, the Institute is an initiator of present-day debates on sculpture, constantly testing ideas by paying attention to the overlooked, and daring to look at what might be coming next.The role of the Institute is not to confirm what is already known, but to open new debates and possibilities through the rigorous and scholarly study of sculpture. Lisa Le Feuvre Head of Sculpture Studies
Architectural drawing: Dixon Jones
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21 APRIL — 26 JUNE 2011
JEAN-MARC BUSTAMANTE — Dead Calm
Born in Toulouse, 1952, Jean-Marc Bustamante is one of France’s major figures in the international art world.This exhibition brings together two areas of Bustamante’s work, photographs and sculptures from early in his career (1978-1997) where he explores the limits of image and object, employing recurring motifs. Bustamante has exhibited widely across Europe, however this is the artist’s first solo exhibition in the United Kingdom, developed in partnership with Edinburgh’s Fruitmarket Gallery. Bustamante’s pioneering photographic work in the 1970s blurred the boundaries between painting and photography, working with scale and image; in the 1980s he began to investigate the relationship between photography and sculpture. This exhibition, Dead Calm, curated by Penelope Curtis, concentrates on a particular moment in his career when photography no longer seemed sufficient in itself, when Bustamante turned to sculptural forms to give his images greater weight and resonance. The title alludes both to the artist’s partiality for the fine days of summer and to the idea of a final resting place, while recalling the nautical term for completely still water. — Publication Produced with the Fruitmarket Gallery, this publication features commissioned and newly translated texts, as well as images of Bustamante’s artistic practice from the 1970s to 2011. — Talks and Events Jean-Marc Bustamante will introduce the exhibition on Wednesday 20 April at 4.30pm. Admission is free, though booking is required. Contact reception on 0113 246 7467 for further details.
Image: Jean-Marc Bustamante, ‘Ouverture 1’, 1993 Collection Fonds national d’art contemporain, Paris Courtesy the artist
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28 JULY — 30 OCTOBER 2011
MARIO MERZ
— What Is to Be Done?
Mario Merz (1925 – 2003) rethought the possibilities of sculpture, working from observation to propose an invigorated way of perceiving the surrounding world. A key figure in what is referred to as the Arte Povera movement, Merz used materials in his work that reflected the Italian era of austerity in the 1960s.The title of this exhibition,‘What Is to Be Done?’, or in Italian ‘Che Fare?’, is a question Merz repeatedly poses. In Merz’s hands it asks what an artist can do as an agent in society: in this exhibition it gleams in blue neon on the wall and rests on a bed of wax. Curated by Lisa Le Feuvre, the exhibition focuses on Merz’s use of materials as protagonists between 1966 and 1977, particularly his use of neon.‘Objet Cache-Toi’ is an igloo made of iron bars, wire netting and linen bags filled with wood shavings, around which the text of the title circles in neon; ‘Automobile trapassata dal neon’ a Simca 1000 car pierced with neon tubes;‘Appogiata’ is a series of glass planes leaning against the wall, perforated by neon tubes. Mario Merz: What Is to Be Done will be the first time since 1983 that the artist has exhibited a solo show in the UK. Complementing the main exhibition, two film-portraits of Merz will be displayed. Gerry Schum’s ‘Lumaca’ (1970) shows Merz interacting with Fibonacci sequences.Tacita Dean’s ‘Mario Merz’ (2002) is a portrait filmed in Tuscany a few months before the artist died; Dean’s film will be shown in Gallery 4 from 7 September – 4 December. — Exhibition Events A two-day international conference in October explores the work and legacies of Mario Merz, relating his work to present day culture and politics.
Image: Mario Merz,‘Appoggiata’ (‘Propped’), 1977 Collection de l’Institut d’art contemporain, Rhône-Alpes © Mario Merz/SIAE/DACS, London 2011/André Morin
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1 DECEMBER 2011 — 11 MARCH 2012
UNITED ENEMIES
— The Problem of Sculpture in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s
United Enemies looks at sculpture made by artists in Britain during the 1960s and 1970s, a time when the idea of sculpture was being radically contested. Curator Jon Wood looks at this highly fertile and experimental period, focusing on the dramatic changes in our understanding of the medium that occurred. Aside from the institutional contests and rivalries of the time, the exhibition invites us to think retrospectively about shared ideas and correspondences, as well as reconsider the differences. United Enemies features work by a wide range of artists, including Keith Arnatt, Clive Barker, Brian Catling, John Davies, David Dye, Garth Evans, Barry Flanagan, Phillip King, Bruce Lacey, Liliane Lijn, Barry Martin, Leonard McComb, Bruce McLean, Keith Milow, Paul Neagu, Carl Plackman, Wendy Taylor and Bill Woodrow – bringing together practices that were not usually presented in the same group exhibition.‘Pyramid of Oranges (Soul City)’ by Roelof Louw, an artist whose work straddled a range of sculptural positions in these years, introduces the exhibition. And at the centre of the show is a reconsideration of vertical form through abstract and figurative ensembles and performance-based works. The relationship between sculpture and performance continues in our smaller Gallery 4, where we are staging Nice Style: The World’s First Pose Band, which runs from 14 December onwards.The exhibition presents photographs, drawings, posters, and cards relating to a collaborative, London-based performance group set up in 1971 by Ron Carr, Gary Chitty, Robin Fletcher, Bruce McLean and Paul Richards. — Publication United Enemies is accompanied by a publication featuring an essay by the curator along with round-table discussions with the artists conducted in 2011. Image: Roelof Louw,‘Pyramid of Oranges/Soul City’, 1967, photographic print and text. Courtesy Leeds Museums & Galleries (Art Gallery) and the artist.
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16 MARCH — 31 JULY 2011
SAVAGE MESSIAH
— The Creation of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska
This exhibition highlights the ways in which the life of the French-born sculptor Henri GaudierBrzeska (1891-1915) entered the history of modern British sculpture and then mainstream culture. 2011 marks the centenary of Gaudier-Brzeska’s move from Paris to London, where he played an important role in the development of modern sculpture in this country, collaborating with figures such as Ezra Pound and Roger Fry, and participating in the Vorticist group and Omega Workshops. In the summer of 1914, Gaudier-Brzeska volunteered for the French army and was killed in action the following year, aged twenty three. Savage Messiah: The Creation of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, curated by Jon Wood, presents the original manuscript of H.S. Ede’s book about Gaudier-Brzeska’s life and looks at the ways in which the life and work of this sculptor was constructed through biographical narratives and, in turn, through film.The Ede manuscript will be displayed alongside Gaudier-Brzeska’s representations of Ezra Pound and Horace Brodzky.These will be exhibited alongside film stills and posters from Ken Russell’s Savage Messiah film of 1972. — Talks and Events Ken Russell introduces Savage Messiah before a screening of his film at Hyde Park Picture House, Leeds, on 22 June as part of a one-day symposium that looks at the broader historiography of the work and life of Gaudier-Brzeska.The event will focus attention on the testimonies of other artists and writers, including Jacob Epstein, Wyndham Lewis and Richard Aldington. — Publication The exhibition coincides with the publication of a new scholarly edition of Savage Messiah, produced in collaboration with Kettle’s Yard. Image: Gaudier-Brzeska by Walter Benington, Leeds Museums & Galleries (Henry Moore Institute Archive)
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MEZZANINE SCULPTURE STUDY GALLERIES The Sculpture Study Galleries present exhibitions based around our collections of sculpture, works on paper and archive material. In 2011, three exhibitions, curated by Sophie Raikes, respond to the exhibition programme in the Main Galleries and draw on recent acquisitions to the collection. Dear Henry Moore: Connections and Correspondence Open until 26 June 2011 The critic Herbert Read described Henry Moore as ‘in some sense a parent’ to a younger generation of sculptors that included Anthony Caro, Isaac Witkin, Ralph Brown, Hubert Dalwood and Reg Butler.Through correspondence, papers, drawings, oral history accounts and sculptures, drawn from our own archive and other collections, the exhibition explores artists’ connections and correspondences with Moore that veer from irreverence to admiration. Darrell Viner: Early Work 28 July – 30 October 2011 Darrell Viner (1946–2001) was a pioneer in the field of 3-D computer art. As one of a small number of British artists in the mid-1970s who learnt to write in code, he developed computer systems and built his own equipment to pursue his interest in movement and animation, applying the technology to kinetic and interactive sculpture.
The exhibition focuses on Viner’s experimental work with computer drawings created at the Slade School of Art. Inscribed on computer paper, using a pen plotter, the drawings have a remarkable hand-drawn quality. They are arranged in formal sequences, each one developed from a single programme, appearing almost as stills from an abstract animation. Shelagh Cluett: Drawing in Space 1 December 2011 – 11 March 2012 Shelagh Cluett’s early sculptures operate as dynamic three-dimensional drawings, ranging from ambitious, room-scale installations, constructed from linear and planar elements to elegant, vertical structures crafted from wire, thin steel, aluminium and brass and copper rods. Drawing in Space brings together sculptures, drawings, sketchbooks and photographic documentation of Cluett’s work from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, when she was a student at Hornsey College of Art and Chelsea School of Art and first emerged on the London art scene. Cluett (1947–2007) was one of the few female sculptors in this period whose work was exhibited and achieved critical recognition. She taught at Chelsea School of Art, where she influenced generations of artists, leading the postgraduate sculpture programme from 1980 to 2007.
Image: Darrell Viner,‘Computer Drawing’, 1975/6. Courtesy Farah Bajull/Leeds Museums & Galleries (Art Gallery)
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COLLECTIONS
The Henry Moore Institute manages and curates the sculpture collections of Leeds Museums & Galleries, an active collection of sculpture housed next door to the Institute in Leeds Art Gallery. The collection began in 1888 with the founding of the Art Gallery and concentrated on British sculpture from the second half of the nineteenth century onwards. Successive directors of the Art Gallery included Phillip Hendy and Robert Rowe who helped establish a reputation for the perceptive collecting of modern and contemporary artworks. It was with the introduction of support from The Henry Moore Foundation that Leeds really confirmed its status as an international centre for the study and appreciation of sculpture. The collection includes maquettes and models as well as finished sculptures. It has doubled in size since 1982, and the Henry Moore Institute continues to invest heavily in bringing works to Leeds which help describe and promote the story of sculpture in Britain. The sculpture collections comprise around 700 sculptures, together with more than 350 works on paper. Changing displays, curated by the Henry Moore Institute, are presented in Leeds Art Gallery.
Image: Mel Brimfield,‘Cubular Belles’, 2010 © Leeds Museums & Galleries (Art Gallery) and the artist
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RESEARCH PROGRAMME
The Research Programme is central to the activities of the Institute.Through it, we aim to encourage research into sculpture both within our walls and without, acting as a hub to develop a network of people with a particular interest in sculpture. Each year, we offer a number of fellowships, enabling researchers of different backgrounds and disciplines to develop their work at the Institute. Scholars, artists and curators interested in working on historic and contemporary sculpture are given full access to the Institute’s library, archive of sculptors’ papers and the collections of Leeds Museums & Galleries. Our research fellows for 2011-2012 include: Jon Thompson, Robert Slifkin, Jeremy Howard, Allan Antliff, Gülru Çakmak, Daniel Zec, Paul Becker, Francesco Pedraglio and Pil and Galia Kollectiv. Fellows base themselves in the Institute’s Library and Archive to develop their research. We collaborate with universities and other research-focused arts organisations, often participating as an academic partner in AHRC projects. We also work closely with the National Sound Archive’s ‘Artists’ Lives’ recording project, conducting interviews with living sculptors. We start each academic year with an Open Day in mid-October that offers behind-the-scenes tours of the galleries, collection, library and archive, as well as an introduction to our forthcoming exhibitions, research programme and events. This is also when we advertise our annual postgraduate internship scheme and the Henry Moore Institute Essay and Dissertation Prize.
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Our annual events include three series of Wednesday evening talks accompanying each main gallery exhibition, as well as international conferences, lectures and seminars that examine the definitions and understandings of historic, modern and contemporary sculpture. Highlights for 2011 include a one-day workshop examining the ‘dada/constructivist’ dualities of abstract art made in Britain since the 1960s and asking what continuities and discontinuities can be discerned across this fifty-year period.The workshop is staged on 11 May and coincides with Construction and its Shadow, the Leeds Art Gallery collections display guest-curated by the artist Andrew Bick. The display and workshop are the outcomes of his Henry Moore Institute Fellowship. On 3 and 4 June, we are staging a collaborative conference, programmed with Leeds Art Gallery,Yorkshire Sculpture Park, The Hepworth Wakefield and Arts Council Collection, Longside, to pay focused attention to the work of Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth in Yorkshire. 2011 sees the opening of The Hepworth Wakefield, the retrospective exhibition of Moore’s work at Leeds Art Gallery, and the prominent inclusion of the two artists’ work at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. See our website for full details of 2011/2012 conferences and lectures. Email: research@henry-moore.org
Image: Simon Starling in the Henry Moore/Hat Maker mask made by Yasuo Miichi, Osaka for Project for a Masquerade (Hiroshima), 2010 (Courtesy the artist and The Modern Institute) Photo: Ruth Clark
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RESEARCH LIBRARY
The Henry Moore Institute Library is a specialist resource for the study of sculpture. Anyone can use the library for reference and no appointment is necessary. Most of the library’s holdings are housed in the reading rooms and can be immediately accessed by readers. The resources are catalogued online and can be searched via the computers in the library or remotely through our website.The collections are for reference only, and visitors are requested to bring proof of identification and address and complete a registration form on their first visit.The library is on the first floor and is accessible for wheelchair users. The library’s collecting priority is modern (post 1875) and contemporary British sculpture, but the library also holds material on international art from ancient times to the present day to support the study of sculpture more generally.
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Our collections consist of • • • • • • • • •
20,000 books, pamphlets and exhibition catalogues Over 100 journal titles, including 30 current subscriptions Electronic resources for the study of sculpture 35,000 slides Over 300 videos and DVDs Sound recordings of interviews with sculptors and Henry Moore Institute talks Rare items including artists’ books Press cuttings and ephemera on British sculptors Selection of UK theses on sculpture
Open daily 10am - 5.30pm, Wednesdays until 9pm NB: From April, Sunday opening hours will be 1pm - 5pm Email: library@henry-moore.org
Image: Library © Henry Moore Institute
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ARCHIVE The Henry Moore Institute houses and maintains the Leeds Museums & Galleries archive of sculptors’ papers, comprising over 250 collections. Covering the eighteenth century through to the present day, our archive has a particular emphasis on the twentieth century and contains a diverse range of papers relating to British sculptural practice. Anyone can use the archive by appointment, and the collections can be searched online via the Henry Moore Institute Archive catalogue on our website.
Hepworth, Bernard Meadows, Ian Breakwell and many others.The highlights include over 1000 photographs, plus scrapbooks, drawings and letters, relating to the work of Sir Jacob Epstein (1880-1959); the papers of Helen Chadwick (1953-1996), encompassing an almost complete record of all of her work including her detailed notebooks; and papers of the Thornycroft family, documenting three generations of nineteenth and twentieth century sculptors.
The Archive actively collects material and is a rapidly growing collection that contains a wealth of materials for study and exhibition, including artists’ sketchbooks, photographs, diaries, letters and notebooks, through to film, sculpting tools and costume. A wide range of sculptural practice is represented in the collection, documenting the work of hundreds of artists, including Eric Gill, Barbara
Visitors are requested to bring proof of identification and address and complete a registration form on their first visit. The Archive is on the first floor and is accessible for wheelchair users.
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Image: Helen Chadwick,‘In the Kitchen’, 1977 Courtesy of the Helen Chadwick Estate, Leeds Museums & Galleries (Henry Moore Institute Archive)
Open Monday - Friday, 10am - 5pm by appointment Email: archive@henry-moore.org
BOOKSHOP Henry Moore Institute publications accompany our exhibitions and focus on research into the understanding of sculpture. Our exhibition catalogues are fully illustrated and feature scholarly essays. Books are available through our online bookshop and at the Institute Bookshop, where we stock a changing selection of journals and magazines alongside our own publications and exhibition-related material. Highlights include: Alan Johnston: Drawing a Shadow: No Object 2010, £20 This bound and illustrated catalogue accompanied the 2010 exhibition Alan Johnston Drawing a Shadow: No Object and includes texts by Penelope Curtis, Charles Esche and Gavin Morrison.
Sculpture in Painting 2010, £20 Exploring the relationship between art in two and three dimensions, the 2010 exhibition Sculpture in Painting brought together works from the 1500s to the present, including paintings by Hogarth, Vuillard, Nicholson and Titian. Includes texts by Fabio Barry, David Batchelor, Penelope Curtis and Etienne Jollet. Box, Body, Burial: The Sculptural Imagination of Keith Arnatt 2009, £3.50 Through his preoccupations with the box, body and burial in the early part of his career, Keith Arnatt challenged sculptural conventions.This essay, on the work of Keith Arnatt, features texts by Jon Wood, Mike Sperlinger and Andrew Wilson. Visit our website for our full list of books: www.henry-moore.org/hmf/shop
Image: Bookshop © Henry Moore Institute
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RECENT ACQUISITIONS The Leeds Museums & Galleries collection is constantly expanding with many significant additions of historical, modern and contemporary works. Key recent acquisitions include Elisabeth Frink’s ‘Birdman’, which was presented by the Beaux Arts Gallery and the Frink Estate through the Art Fund.This life-size plaster model was made by Frink soon after she left Chelsea College of Art in the mid-1950s – a time when she was searching for a new style and combining human and animal forms in original and innovative ways.Together with Bernard Meadows, her tutor at Chelsea School of Art whose work is also included in the collection, Frink was key to the revival of interest in animal sculpture in Britain in this period. It is thought that she was inspired to create the motif after reading in Picture Post of the death of a real-life ‘birdman’, Léo Valentin, who had fallen to earth wearing wooden wings in an attempt to fly. The collection also recently acquired four drawings by the winner of the 2010 Northern Art Prize, Pavel Büchler, and Keith Arnatt, including his ‘Cardboard Box’ series of forty colour photographs of 1995; a group of eight little-known early drawings from 1961- 65; and a unique archive of photographic slides, taken by Arnatt and documenting his work across the 1960s. As with many purchases, this was made possible through generous help from the Art Fund, V&A/MLA Purchase Grant Fund, Leeds City Council and The Henry Moore Foundation.
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Image: Elisabeth Frink,‘Birdman’, Plaster, 1956/9 © Courtesy of Beaux Arts/Frink Estate
GETTING HERE Henry Moore Institute The Headrow, Leeds, LS1 3AH Open daily 10am - 5.30pm Wednesdays until 9pm Closed bank holidays Free entry www.henry-moore.org/hmi Telephone Enquiries: 0113 246 7467 Email: info@henry-moore.org We are also contactable via Facebook and Twitter: twitter.com/HMILeeds Booking is essential for most events. Please see our website for full details and more information
— Getting here The Henry Moore Institute is located in the centre of Leeds, five minutes walk from Leeds rail station and ten miles from Leeds Bradford Airport.The Institute is adjacent to Leeds Art Gallery. — About Us The Henry Moore Institute is an award-winning exhibitions venue, research centre, library and sculpture archive. We host a year-round programme of exhibitions, conferences, lectures, research, fellowships and publications which aim to expand the understanding and scholarship of historical and contemporary sculpture. The Institute curates the Leeds Museums & Galleries sculpture collection which is on display in Leeds Art Gallery.
Archive: archive@henry-moore.org Library: library@henry-moore.org Research: research@henry-moore.org Information: info@henry-moore.org
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The Institute is part of The Henry Moore Foundation which was set up by the artist Henry Moore in 1977 to encourage appreciation of the visual arts, especially sculpture.The Foundation’s responsibilities are preserving Moore’s legacy at his Hertfordshire home and in exhibitions worldwide, funding exhibitions and research at the Institute and awarding grants to arts organisations in the United Kingdom and abroad. Moore’s former home, sculpture grounds and studios at Perry Green, Hertfordshire, are open to visitors seasonally.
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