Henry Moore Institute
Newsletter Newsletter 98 This issue of the Henry Moore Institute’s Newsletter coincides with the beginning of the academic year when our Annual Academic Open Day introduces tutors, researchers and students to our programme. As a centre for the study of sculpture, our partnership with academic organisations and academic research is key. Our exhibitions, collections and research seek to inspire, challenge and rethink the very definitions of sculpture. To do this, our links with those researching, teaching and learning are essential. Our Library is unique across Europe in its specialist focus on sculpture, making it an essential resource for those researching the subject. The history of sculpture is communicated as much through images and anecdote as it is through publications. As well as holding over 20,000 books, pamphlets and catalogues, our Library includes an audiovisual collection comprising documentation of all of the Institute’s exhibitions, lectures and events, as well as recordings of artists, historians and curators talking about sculpture. Our ever expanding collection of Sculptors’ Files archiving ephemeral material on British sculptors sits alongside the Archive of Sculptors’ Papers, which we manage in partnership with Leeds Museums and Galleries, to enable primary research. Our research programme initiates communities of scholarly research to support the testing out of new ideas, all the while providing opportunities for this work to reach a specialist and broad public. Currently two of our Research Fellows, Paul Becker and Francesco Pedraglio, are exploring concepts of the imaginary artist, extending and maintaining our research focus in this area, which began with our summer display in Gallery 4, Savage Messiah: the Creation of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska. In the next two months our public programme features a keynote lecture as part of our Open Day with the artist Nathanial Mellors, who teaches at Leeds Metropolitan University, as well as three lectures and an international conference examining what can be learnt from our current exhibition Mario Merz: What Is to Be Done? The conference, Exhibiting Merz, looks at the ways Merz’s work circulated in the 1960s and 70s. Exhibitions are the ways in which artworks reach a public; it is the moment when an artist loses control as the unpredictable realm of public reception is ushered in. Our current research focus is on the histories of the exhibition of sculpture across historical, modern and contemporary time frames. We currently have a call for papers for a session we are convening at the Association of Art Historians 2012 conference titled Sculpture and its Exhibition Histories that will explore the relations between objects, practices and encounters that uniquely take place within the space of display. The exhibition of sculpture is particularly important in the field of art: a sculpture sits in space, pulling or pushing all that visually surrounds it for its own ends. It needs to be walked around, looked at and considered in relation to the space that holds it.
October/November 2011 Issue No. 98
In focusing on the ways in which sculpture is displayed and exhibited, we seek with this research to consider how sculpture is encountered and how it enters the history of art. Once a part of an art historical discourse, every exhibition brings with it specifics of the time and place that reveal the assumptions and conventions attached to the idea of sculpture. Our role at the Institute is to place sculpture right at the centre of the future of art history, be that the past, present or future. Lisa Le Feuvre, Head of Sculpture Studies
Merz to Sweden In March 2012, Mario Merz: What Is to Be Done? travels to Bildmuseet in northern Sweden. This will be the first exhibition in a stunning new gallery building, located by the banks of the Umeå River at Umeå University’s Arts campus, designed by the Danish architect Henning Larsen. Working in partnership with Katarina Pierre, Director of Bildmuseet, and her team, new works will be introduced to this extended version of the exhibition, which is accompanied by a Swedish version of the sixty-third issue of our recently redesigned journal Essays on Sculpture.
New Display in Gallery 4 Tacita Dean, 7 September – 4 December 2011 Tacita Dean’s 16 mm film ‘Mario Merz’ (2002) complements Mario Merz: What Is to Be Done? showing in our Main Galleries until 30 October. The film is accompanied by a display of ‘Blind Pan (five monochrome landscapes)’, a set of five drawings made by Dean in 2004 that are part of the Leeds Museums and Galleries sculpture collection, which is managed in partnership with the Institute. ‘Mario Merz’ was made in San Gimignano, Tuscany, where Dean was invited to a residency in 2002. A study of the aging artist in the last year of his life, Merz is observed sitting under a tree, a large pinecone in his hand. The film is ostensibly a portrait, but more importantly is a study of light in space and form in nature – central concerns in Merz’s sculptural investigations. As Dean describes: ‘his choice of prop was generated by his sculptor’s interest in the Fibonacci sequence and its instances in nature’. Dean’s approach to filmmaking is decidedly sculptural: she presents objects in space, fascinated by how light and time inform perception, harnessing silence to study how a particular location, individual or event is located within space and time, reworked through the telling, and mistelling of history. ‘Blind Pan (five monochrome landscapes)’ is a sequence of drawings that are a storyboard for an unmade film. A found black and white photograph of an unidentified landscape is the backdrop for directions that map out a journey, written by hand by the artist, as if chalk on a blackboard, narrating the journey of Oedipus and Antigone, figures from Greek mythology, through the wilderness.
Forthcoming Events Mario Merz Talks Series 7 October 7pm and 9pm Lisa Le Feuvre (Henry Moore Institute): The curator of Mario Merz: What Is to Be Done? and Head of the Institute leads two tours of the exhibition as a part of the annual Leeds Light Night 2011 (www.lightnightleeds.co.uk). The Institute’s galleries and library are open until 10 pm, with our Bookshop hosting a book sale of limited edition catalogues. 12 October 6pm Martin Holman (Independent): Merz and Arte Povera 26 October 6pm Nicholas Cullinan (Tate Modern): Merz’s Legacies and Contemporary Art
Annual Academic Open Day 14 October 2.30pm Specifically aimed at groups of students beginning the new academic year in the company of course tutors, our yearly Open Day includes a schedule of talks and tours from Institute staff and concludes with a keynote lecture at 6pm by artist Nathanial Mellor in Leeds Art Gallery Lecture Theatre. Booking for tours is essential: contact Kirstie Gregory on kirstie@henry-moore.org. The keynote lecture is free and open to all.
Conference: Exhibiting Merz 19 October 10.30am-7pm This one-day conference looks at the ways in which Mario Merz’s work has been presented in exhibitions, paying particular attention to the period of art making that our current exhibition covers, 1966 to 1977. Dieter Schwarz (Kunstmuseum Winterthur): The Artist and his Material: from Notizie to Sperone, 1963-1968 Marlis Grüterich (Independent): Città Irreale: The Anthropological Iconography of Mario Merz’s Exhibition Art and its Metamorphosis in Response to Place Bettina Della Casa (Museo Cantonale d’Arte, Lugano): Che fare?: Galleria l’Attico, Roma, 5 febbraio 1969 Mariano Boggia (Merz Foundation, Turin): Via Borgonuovo 2, Milano, giovedì 1 ottobre 1970, alle ore 19 Alistair Rider (St Andrews University): Fibonacci 1202 (1970) Lara Conte (University of Pisa): From Arte povera più azione to When Attitudes Become Form (1968-69): Mario Merz’s work in group shows and his first international connections The conference is free of charge but booking is essential, contact kirstie@henry-moore.org
Conference: Sculpture and Comic Art 16 November 10am-4.45pm, Leeds Art Gallery Lecture Theatre As part of the three-day Comics Forum academic conference and Thought Bubble comics convention, the Institute is convening a one-day event exploring relationships between sculpture and comic art, looking at how formal and thematic concerns have migrated between these practices.
Conference chair: Paul Gravett (Writer, lecturer, broadcaster, curator and Comica festival organiser) Confirmed speakers: Richard Reynolds (Central Saint Martins): The Superhero Genre and Comic Form: From Antiquity to Now Florence Quideau (Rutgers University, New Jersey): The Visual Power of Sculpted Caricatures and Comic Lithographs Ian Kirkpatrick (Artist): From Classics to Comics: Hero, Myth and Narrative in Contemporary Sculpture Tim Martin (De Montfort University): Smithson Entropy and the New Comedy Stuart Burch (Nottingham Trent University): Statue of Judgement: Estonia’s Bronze Soldier from a Dreddful Perspective Kim Pace (Artist/Curator): The Beginnings of Comic Language in Spatial Terms Dan Smith (Chelsea College of Art and Design): Space and Excavation in the Work of Olivia Plender Catherine Labio (University of Colorado): Comics’ Third Dimension Tickets: £10 Book through the Comics Forum website: http://comicsforum.org/comics-forum-2011. Developing from our research on sculpture and graphic art, the Institute is convening a panel on this subject at the Lucca International Convention of Comics, Animation and Illustration in October. See our website for more details.
Call for Papers: Association of Art Historians Conference 2012 Sculpture and its Exhibition Histories It is commonplace that sculpture is best encountered to be appreciated and that its forms and meanings are inadequately captured by the photographic image. This session takes up this familiar complaint, arguing that over the last hundred years or so it has been through the exhibition of sculpture that we develop an understanding of sculpture itself. Unlike published accounts of sculpture, its exhibitions have been strikingly successful in opening up the material and formal life of sculpture. Through presentation, arguments are constructed that highlight the subtle relations between objects and practices, be it through specialist exhibitions of sculpture, such as British Sculpture in the Twentieth Century (1981), The Sculpture Show (1983), Sculpture in Twentieth-Century Britain (2003) or Modern British Sculpture (2011), and in landmark exhibitions such as This is Tomorrow (1956), When Attitudes Become Form (1969), The Condition of Sculpture (1975) or Les magiciens de la terre (1989), as well as large scale periodic exhibitions across the globe, such as Documenta and the Venice, Sao Paolo and Taipei biennials. This session invites consideration of exhibitions internationally across the last century and into the present. We invite proposals for 25-minute conference papers. Deadline for submissions is Monday 7 November 2011; submit a 250-word abstract and short CV to Kirstie Gregory, kirstie@henry-moore.org.
Research Henry Moore Institute Research Fellowships Call for Applications: 2012-2013 Each year the Institute offers a number of fellowships that enable researchers of different backgrounds and disciplines to develop their work at the Institute. Research Fellowships are intended to provide the opportunity for artists, scholars and curators, working on historic and contemporary sculpture to use the Institute’s Library, Archive and the collection of Leeds Art Gallery. Up to four fellows will be invited to spend a month in Leeds to develop their own research. Senior Fellowships are intended to give established scholars (working on any aspect of sculpture) time and space to develop a research project. Up to two senior fellowships for periods of between four to six weeks will be offered. Both fellowships provide accommodation, travel expenses and a per diem. To apply, send a letter of application, a proposal and a CV by 9 January 2012. For further information or to apply for a fellowship contact Kirstie Gregory, kirstie@henry-moore.org
Environments of Polychromy One of the Institute’s current research strands is the history of the exhibition of sculpture. In 2012 we are organising a conference and exhibition on the theme of Environments of Polychromy. Using the Institute’s Library, Archive and collections, this project will involve compiling a bibliography, sourcing images/artists and developing ideas alongside Institute staff. Michael Dean British artist Michael Dean has exhibited widely nationally and internationally. He was a Henry Moore Institute Research Fellow in 2009, and the Institute is hosting his first solo exhibition in a UK public gallery in April 2012. Working closely with curatorial staff and the artist, you will be involved in the technical realisation of a major single-artist exhibition as Dean constructs art work on site The Helen Chadwick Archive – Preservation and Documentation This project focuses on preserving and making accessible an extensive collection of colour slides comprising a detailed record of the developing of Chadwick’s practice in a wide range of materials, including letters, photographs, film, costume and sketchbooks. The internship will require research to gain an understanding of Chadwick’s oeuvre, in order to identify the works shown in the slides.
Chelsea Arts Club Trust We are very pleased to announce that over the next three years, Chelsea Arts Club Trust will be supporting our annual Research Fellowships. This award from the Trust will specifically assist us to host a London based artist to develop their work, with the first recipients being the artists Pil and Galia Kollectiv (Goldsmiths College and the University of Reading) who commence their fellowship in December. Titled The role of faith in sustaining the fiction of capital, the Kollectiv will explore the notion of capitalism as a faith system founded on the abstract concept of money. They will use our resources to consider the relationship between decorative sculpture and post-religious iconography, with a particular interest in our Archive holdings on Oscar Nemon’s Temple of Universal Ethics. During their Fellowship they will be working towards realising a project as a series of ritual objects pertaining to a cult of finance.
Internships at the Henry Moore Institute This year we are inviting applications for four funded internships for students across MA programmes at UK universities. The internships are aimed at students who have an interest in sculpture, and are intended to provide practical experience of working in a museum environment on projects relating to our collections, exhibitions and research programme. Internships will involve students working with our resources and curators. The timing of the internship can be arranged according to applicant and staff availability. Travel, and if necessary, accommodation will be provided. Our 2011-2012 intern projects are: 1913 This project involves research for a forthcoming exhibition focusing on the role of sculpture in this important year, looking at it in relation to other media. Working in the Institute Library you will conduct both object and issue-based research.
To apply, email a document of approximately 500 words, stating which of the following projects you would be interested in and why you would like to undertake a Henry Moore Institute internship, to Kirstie Gregory – kirstie@henry-moore.org – by 18 November 2011. An award of £250 will be given to students at the end of the twoweek internships.
Sculpture Theft The sculptor Michael Lyons has suffered a theft from his property in Cawood, Yorkshire. Police have appealed for witnesses and information. Three of Lyons’ sculptures – ‘Mayflower (2)’, ‘Energy of The Mountain: Echo and Revelation’, and ‘Energy of The Mountain (2)’ - were created between 1983 and 2002 and have a combined value of £85,000. They were stolen from his orchard in early September. ‘Echo and Revelation’ was built from sheet copper in China, and weighs about three-quarters of a tonne; the smaller two are made of bronze. Lyons is the former Head of Sculpture at Manchester Metropolitan University, was the Vice President of the Royal British Society of Sculptors and is a founding member of Yorkshire Sculpture Park. His work is included in our forthcoming United Enemies exhibition, and the Institute’s Librarian is currently interviewing him for The British Library’s National Life Stories oral history project. In an interview with the York Press Lyons said: ‘According to my neighbours, they saw a white van and trailer around, and one of them thought it was going up my drive. There’s nothing unusual about that, because I have people coming to collect items for exhibitions, so they wouldn’t think it was anything exceptional.’ Please contact North Yorkshire Police, 0845 6060247 or Crimestoppers, 0800 555111 (anonymously) with any information.
Research Fellowship Report Henry Moore Institute Research Fellow 2010 My one-month Research Fellowship from the Henry Moore Institute was in support of my doctoral dissertation on the British Sculptor John Gibson (1790-1866). Born in Wales and raised in Liverpool, Gibson made his way to Rome in 1817 and became the first British sculptor to work with Antonio Canova. After the deaths of Canova and Bertel Thorvaldsen, Gibson arguably became the most important artist in the Roman school of sculpture, counting among his most illustrious patrons Queen Victoria, the Duke of Devonshire and Czar Nicholas I. His work also appealed to the rising middle classes and he was patronised by British politicians and industrialists such as William Huskisson and George Stephenson. In his day, however, Gibson became best known for tinting statues in emulation of the ancient Greeks, a practice which culminated in his ‘Tinted Venus’ that was shown at the International Exhibition of 1862. This interest in polychrome sculpture was not always well received and led inevitably to his dismissal from most histories of sculpture. Despite a revival of interest in polychrome sculpture, Gibson is still an unknown figure in most histories of sculpture, and as such is seen as a pure classicist, unaware of current trends in art and above the commercial side of art production. By drawing on methodologies as disparate as queer studies, studio practice and art patronage, my dissertation will redress this false perception of Gibson as a disengaged classicist to show how, for Gibson, the classical body itself was a form of modernity. During my four weeks at the Henry Moore Institute, I used the Library and Archive every day. Because it is important to position Gibson in the historic trajectory of his predecessors and contemporaries, the library and archive provided me with an array of books, periodicals and manuscripts from the early 1800s to today that helped me better assess Gibson’s contribution to the history of British sculpture. Even though the Henry Moore Institute and Leeds Art Gallery do not hold many objects by Gibson, the strong collection of materials by his contemporaries, such as Joseph Gott and Richard James Wyatt, and associated with his followers, such as Mary Thornycroft and her son Hamo Thornycroft, were of immeasurable assistance in allowing me to make visual comparisons and assessments of Gibson’s work alongside theirs. In addition, there were numerous opportunities for networking with curators, researchers and visiting scholars, as well as the library and archive staff, all of whom helped me immensely through their discussions and feedback to my work. I also had the privilege of visiting the sculpture collections at Lotherton Hall and Temple Newsam House, and received great support work from the curatorial staff there too. Thanks to my Research Fellowship, I was able to receive additional funding from my university to extend my stay in England beyond the Fellowship to research in Liverpool and London. The Henry Moore Institute’s support was, and continues, to be the greatest support I needed to move forward with my dissertation research. Roberto C. Ferrari is based at New York University
Publications British Sculptors and Sculpture Series Working in collaboration with Lund Humphries, the Institute has developed a series of publications committed to expand the history of British sculpture of the twentieth century which has conventionally been rather narrowly conceived, with a limited rollcall of starring names. The British Sculptors and Sculpture Series aims to increase that cast by providing opportunities for new scholars to work on archival resources and to establish oeuvre catalogues for unjustly neglected figures. This autumn two more volumes, Gertrude Hermes and John Skeaping, have been published in the series. A graduate of Leon Underwood’s Brook Green School of Art in London, Gertrude Hermes (1901–83) trained as a painter and sculptor. Hermes and her husband, Blair Hughes-Stanton, whom she met at Brook Green, went on to become leading lights in the early twentieth-century’s wood-engraving revival: their exuberant visual inventions for Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress and T.E. Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom bringing them critical acclaim, though the marriage was short-lived. Featuring over 150 images, The Sculpture of Gertrude Hermes presents for the first time a full analysis of the artist’s entire sculptural oeuvre. Along with a comprehensive catalogue of Hermes’ sculpture, Jane Hill provides a full account of the artist’s life in the context of her career as a sculptor. What results is a picture of a pioneering spirit who created busts and heads, decorative work and reliefs which display dynamism and unpredictability. While his career spanned six decades, John Skeaping (1901–80) is often associated with the work he completed while he was married to Barbara Hepworth. However, this period of just six years (1926 to 1932) ignores the breadth of Skeaping’s visual output. Alongside discussion of Skeaping’s best-known animalier works, Jonathan Blackwood provides insights into the artist’s working practices, as developed under the tutelage of Francis Derwent Wood, and the diverse commissions that he undertook after the close of the Second World War. Including a full catalogue of Skeaping’s sculptures with over 200 reproductions of the artist’s works, The Sculpture of John Skeaping is essential reading for all those interested in learning more about this unjustly neglected figure within British sculpture. The publications are available to purchase from the Institute’s bookshop and on-line shop, and to reference in the Institute’s Library.
New from Getty Publications Anglo-American Exchange in Postwar Sculpture, 1945-1975 This new open access digital publication redresses an important art historical oversight. Histories of American and British sculpture are usually told separately, yet such boundaries obscure a vibrant exchange of ideas, individuals and aesthetic influences. The post war art world saw dynamic interactions between British and American sculptors, critics, curators, teachers and institutions. Comprising an introduction and papers originally presented at a symposium held at the Getty Center in 2008 sponsored by the J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Research Institute and the Henry Moore Institute, topics range from individual artists’ works to the role of journalism and photography and the use of polychromy in the 60s. Edited by Rebecca Peabody, Manager of Research Projects at the Getty Research Institute, the publication is available at www.getty.edu/museum/symposia/angloamerican.html
Library
New People
New Acquisitions
Exhibitions and Displays Curator
Our active Library collections are constantly expanding, reflecting our research activities.
We are delighted to announce the appointment of Pavel Pyś as our Exhibitions and Displays Curator. A young Australian-Polish curator and writer currently based in London, Pavel will be relocating to Leeds to join us at the end of October.
King for a Day and 999 other pieces/works/things, etc, 1969 Alongside other items recently added to our Library collection is the catalogue from Bruce McLean’s one-day retrospective, King for a Day, initially held in 1970 at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and then at Tate in 1972. McLean’s work features in our forthcoming exhibition United Enemies: The Problem of Sculpture in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s, opening in November. He was a key member of Nice Style, whose work is studied in a Gallery 4 display opening in December. King for a Day is a slim volume bound in black card and sealed with a white label which reads ‘Another Major Breakthrough Piece / Note Casual Tat’. It lists a thousand proposals for imaginary works, such as ‘Blue on blue thing’, ‘Major breakthrough piece’ and ‘Serious art work No 5’. Inserted into the catalogue is a crumpled coloured pencil drawing on squared paper which may have come from McLean’s performance ‘Object no Concepts’ that took place in his solo exhibition at the London gallery Situation in 1971. The artist sat at a desk making and then screwing up drawings, which were later recovered by the gallery director and who then ironed them in preparation for their sale and display. A retrospective usually signals the culmination of a prolific career, presenting works to date for reappraisal. McLean opted to have his when he was in his late 20s and chose to display nothing but 1,000 copies of the catalogue. These were arranged systematically on the floor in a grid in a parody of minimalist sculpture. Visitors could buy copies directly, resulting in a dismantling of the artwork throughout the course of the day. Both the exhibition and catalogue were part of McLean’s rejection of the sculpture of the late 1960s as he questioned what sculpture might be. The catalogue is a witty take on the language and pretensions of the art world and brilliantly illustrates the importance of humour in McLean’s work. Books from the library of Lois Elizabeth Farningham The Library has received a gift of the books from the library of Lois Elizabeth Farningham (1928-2011). Mrs Farningham attended exhibitions and talks at the Institute and used the Library for research into the sculptors George Halse (1826-95) and Emmeline Halse (1853-1930), Saxon and Norman church architecture and public sculpture. The selection donated to the Library reflects these interests, and it also includes a gift of research files on George and Emmeline Halse to the Archive.
On Display: Generative Art: The Scientific Connection 15 September-17 October 2011 Accompanying our Sculpture Studies Gallery display of Darrell Viner’s works, the current Library display features publications from the 1970s on the British Systems Group shown alongside related material by scientists exploring visual language through the use of computational systems. Ann Sproat, Librarian
Pavel’s first degree was in Sociology at the University of York (2004-7), he then studied a Postgraduate Certificate in Arts Administration at the College of Fine Arts, UNSW, Sydney, followed by MSC Culture and Society at London School of Economics (2008-9). He was awarded MFA Curating at Goldsmiths with distinction (2008-10). Pavel has recently been awarded the Foundation Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Young Curators Residency in Turin and was winner of the First Zabludowicz Collection Curatorial Open in London.
Post-Doctoral Fellow In October our first Institute-based post-doctoral Fellow, Elizabeth McCormick, will begin her two-year tenure with us in Leeds. Applications for this grant-funded fellowship invited researchers with a pre-twentieth century specialism to propose an international conference theme relating to their own work, to be realised in 2013. Elizabeth completed her doctorate at York University this year, titled Crosses in Circulation: Processes and Patterns of Acquisition and Display of Early Medieval Sculpture in the National Museums of Britain and Ireland 1850 to 1950. As well as developing her PhD research towards the conference, Elizabeth will work with the Institute team on our wider research programme. Her thesis work on the display and circulation of early medieval sculpture will help us to develop our current research into the histories of exhibitions of sculpture.
Archive For the last six months, artist Aleksandra Mir has been working on documenting the life story of Czech sculptor Irena Sedlecka (b.1928) (see www.freddieontheplinth.co.uk/interview/), who was married to the sculptor Franta Belsky (1921-2000). In 2001 Irena Sedlecka generously donated Belsky’s papers (c.1950-2000) to the Henry Moore Institute Archive. The Belsky archive contains papers, photographs and press cuttings for the artist’s major commissions, including his sculptures of Churchill and the Mountbatten statue, portrait work, public sculptures such as ‘The Lesson’ (1955-6) and the ‘Shell Fountain’ (1959-62) and photographs of his studio. Many of the images show the works in progress and their installation. There are papers, minutes and exhibition catalogues from the Royal Society of Portrait Sculptors 1956-2000, as Belsky was a long-standing member and President. The archive includes writings about and by Belsky, including an unpublished monograph. There is also a collection of source material and personal papers. The Henry Moore Institute Archive is open Monday-Friday, 10am-5pm by prior appointment. Contact Claire Mayoh, Archivist, claire@henry-moore.org
Noticeboard
Henry Moore Institute
Workshops and Conference on Sculpture and Change First Workshop: Reconfigured Spaces
The Headrow Leeds LS1 3AH
14 October 2011, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London Works of sculpture and the places in which they are viewed are more prone to adaptation, transformation, damage and loss than are any other categories of object. Sculpture is frequently intended to be inseparable from the spaces and locations it occupies. In consequence, its removal is often traumatic and recorded in damage to both object and context. The adjustment of buildings, rooms and public spaces to accommodate relocated objects, whether for the purpose of public display or private ownership, results in shifts in the physical status, the implied meaning and the social perception of both the moved object and its altered situation. However, whilst the removal of sculpture from its intended context changes the thing itself, the space it once occupied and the place into which it is deposited, the ruptures and dislocations associated with such events also provide opportunities for detailed technical examination, the retrieval of previously inaccessible views and the creation of new and unexpected juxtapositions of things and ideas. The new readings that are opened up by such opportunities can relate both to the histories of individual objects and their making up and to the wider social, religious and political narratives of which they form a part. In these narratives, the traces of the removal and relocation of sculpture are often the only physical vestiges left of the events they describe. Over the course of three workshops, this project will seek to explore some of the implications of these issues. Each workshop will be thematically focused, without bias to either period or discipline, drawing on a wide range of methodologies and expertise. The resulting dialogue will provide the basis for a conference early in 2012. The 2007 Henry Moore Institute conference, Sculpture in the Museum, addressed some of the issues involved in the formal, institutional display of sculpture. This workshop will explore questions raised by the broader relationship between threedimensional objects and the spaces they are made for, removed from and into which they are placed. More information: www.courtauld.ac.uk/researchforum/events/2011/autumn/ThreeDimensions.shtml
Call for Papers: International Medal Congress 10-14 July 2012, Glasgow Proposals for papers are invited on all aspects of medallic art, both historical and contemporary, to be given at the XXXII FIDEM congress being organised by the Hunter Coin Cabinet of the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery at the University of Glasgow in collaboration with FIDEM. The themes of the principal sequences of papers will be: The Medal as Object/The Medal as Idea. One sequence will consider the medal as a tangible made object and look particularly at the relationship between medals and larger works of sculpture. The other will focus on the ideas underlying medallic imagery and the relationships between that imagery and representations in other media, particularly printed books. Deadline for proposals is 31 January 2012. For more information see: www.hmag.gla.ac.uk/SAC/fidem1_homepage.htm
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Located in the centre of Leeds adjacent to Leeds Art Gallery, five minutes walk from the rail station.
Exhibitions Guided Tours Free guided tours of the current Henry Moore Institute exhibitions are available on Wednesdays at 7.30pm and on Saturdays at 2.30pm. It is not necessary to book in advance; enquire on the day at gallery reception. To book a tailor-made tour of any part of the Institute’s activities contact us on 0113 246 7467.
Main Galleries To 30 October 2011 Mario Merz: What Is to Be Done? 1 December 2011-11 March 2012 United Enemies: The Problem of Sculpture in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s
Gallery 4 7 September-4 December 2011 Tacita Dean: Mario Merz
Leeds Art Gallery Sculpture Study Galleries: Mezzanine To 30 October 2011 Darrell Viner: Early Work 1 December 2011-11 March 2012 Shelagh Cluett: Drawing in Space
Sculpture Galleries The Practice and Profession of Sculpture: Objects from the Leeds Collection
Leeds Art Gallery is open daily 10.00am – 5.00pm Wednesday 12.00pm – 5.00pm, Sunday 1.00pm – 5.00pm
The Henry Moore Foundation in partnership with Leeds City Council
www.henry-moore.org ISSN 1363-1152 Newsletter co-ordinated by Gill Armstrong (gill@henry-moore.org)