MAISIE BROADHEAD
The connection with art history enriches photography’s vocabulary, and it is a productive kind of retrospection for a practitioner like Maisie Broadhead, who borrows freely from past art … [Broadhead’s] photographic illusion is rich; each figure, each tint is sympathetically reimagined – Hope Kingsley, Seduced by Art: Photography Past and Present (London: National Gallery, 2012) Maisie Broadhead re-interprets art historical images, and is concerned with the exploration of illusion and the idea of ‘value.’ Broadhead’s exceptional eye for detail, quality and composition is conveyed through the making of complex set design, lavish costume, and theatrical direction to arrive at a final image. The viewer’s eye indulges in Broadhead’s representation of rich, sumptuous fabrics, often with humorous contemporary embellishment. By using contemporary and historical elements, the images link the past and present by identifying enduring social and aesthetic narratives. ‘Pearls’ presents a recent series of photographic and sculptural works. The new series explores seventeenth century formal female portraiture. At the time, portraits were often commissioned by privileged European families to reveal the beauty of their young daughters before marriage. They were mostly lavish, opulent images designed to seduce the onlooker and allude to the virtue, dowry and social position of the sitter. The portraits idealised wealth through expensive fabrics and beautiful jewels and beauty was defined through a demure pose and serene facial expression. Broadhead appropriates these visual codes of the seventeenth century representations to highlight the political and social intentions behind these portraits as well as to consider the role of women in contemporary society. In many of the seventeenth century portraits, pearls are featured prominently and play a significant role in constructing the identity of a young woman. They were the most expensive gems of the period, and not only represented wealth but also purity and chastity. Maisie Broadhead studied Jewellery at the RCA with a particular interest in its social history. In this new series of work, the sitter’s pearls are re-arranged with playful connotations, as a noose around the sitter’s neck or tied by a ball and chain. The pearls are often oversized and even spill out from the frames. The physical presence of the pearls adds a sculptural element to the artist’s work. The pearls exist as object and image and their dialogue considers ideas of representations, the real and the fake;; a theme that runs throughout Broadhead’s practice and earlier works.
All prices include s/s vat, but excludes crating and shipping. Prints can also be bought individually without frame + pearls.
Ball and Chain, 2016. Digital c-type print, frame and pearls. Ed. 1/6 124.5 x 99.5 cm: £9,900 Ed. 2/12 35 x 30 cm: £4,900 Incl. s/s vat
Purity, 2016. Ed. of 6, Digital c-type print, frame and pearls, 117 x 96 cm, £9,900 Ed. 3/6 35 x 30 cm, £4,900 Ed. 2/12 Incl. s/s vat
Heavy Load, 2016. Ed. of 6, Digital c-type print, frame and pearls, 72 x 58 cm, £7,500 Ed. 1/6 35 x 30 cm: £4,900 Ed. 1/12 Incl. s/s vat
Hung, 2016. Ed. of 6, Digital c-type print, frame and pearls, 73 x 58.5 cm: £7,500 35 x 30 cm, £4,900 Ed. 1/12 Incl. s/s vat
Chained, 2016. Ed. of 6, Digital c-type, frame and pearls, 132.5 x 104 cm: £9,900 Ed.1/6 35 x 30 cm: £4,900 Ed. 3/12 Incl. s/s vat
Shackled, 2016. Ed. of 6, Digital c-type, frame and pearls, 110.5 x 93.5 cm, £9,900 Ed. 1/6 35 x 30 cm, £4,900 Ed.1/12 Incl. s/s vat
Puppet, 2016. Ed. of 6, Digital c-type print, frame and pearls 92 x 78 cm, £7,500 Ed. 2/6 35 x 30 cm, £4,700 Ed.2/12 Incl. s/s vat
Silenced, 2016. (left) Ed. 1/12, Digital c-type print and frame, 66 x 52 cm ÂŁ6,900 incl. s/s vat
Caught, 2016. Ed. of 6, Digital c-type print, frame, shelf and pearls, 36 x 42.5 cm: ÂŁ7,500 incl. s/s vat
Maisie Broadhead Royal Pavilion Brighton 2014. Photo Andrew Matthews
Isabella Study 02, 2014. Edition 5/12, Digital C-Type print, 25 x 21 cm ÂŁ3,000 incl. s/s vat
Studies 01 Series, 2014. After Johannes Vermeer
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Studies 02 Series, 2014. After Vilhelm Hammershoi
This collection of works includes a series of photographs entitled Broadhead’s Women, a group of studies which portray three generations of women from the artist’s immediate family. Broadhead’s Women reinterprets the recognisable compositional styles of two historical painters – Johannes Vermeer and Vilhelm Hammershøi – and highlights their similar obsession with repeating a narrative of women situated within quiet, domestic interiors. By using the visual format of these iconic artists, while making subtle changes, Broadhead offers intimate and timeless portraits of femininity. In other new works, Broadhead focuses her attention even more acutely on herself with a series of self-portraits. Here, she continues her playful exploration of weaving together the two-dimensional image with sculptural and three-dimensional elements. The selfportrait’s classical reference points are evident and recognizable, but new illusions and ‘tricks-of-theeye’ underline the artist’s self-reflection at a time of early motherhood and torn commitments. Hans Stofer, Professor and Head of Goldsmithing, Silversmithing, Metalwork and Jewellery at the Royal College of Art, London, comments on Broadhead’s creativity: ‘All art is a fragment or out of focus. It is not the purpose of a work of art to provide neat solutions but to act as a catalyst for our imagination. Maisie Broadhead’s work is like the window through which we peer and that mists up with ambiguity. It is this ambiguity that forces us to look closer and by doing so our own stories begin to unfold. Once we allow ourselves to trespass and scrutinise this other private space and allow our imagination to roam then the intangible becomes real – for each of us – on our own terms.’
Isabella Study 01, 2014. (Woman with Necklace) Edition 9/12, Digital C-Type print, 51 x 45 cm ÂŁ5,800 incl. s/s vat
Zoe Study 01, 2014. (Woman taking a Break) Edition 1/12, Digital C-Type print, 51 x 45 cm £5,500 incl. s/s vat
Maisie Study 01, 2014. (Woman with Washing) Edition 2/12, Digital C-Type print, 51 x 45 cm ÂŁ5,500 incl. s/s vat
Caroline Study 01, 2014. (Woman Working) Edition 1/12, Digital C-Type print, 51 x 45 cm ÂŁ5,500 incl. s/s vat
Malou Study 01, 2014. (Girl with Phone) Edition 2/12, Digital C-Type print, 51 x 45 cm £5,500 incl. s/s vat
Malou Study 02, 2014. Edition 4/12, Digital C-Type print, 21 x 25 cm £3,000 incl. s/s vat
Maisie Study 02, 2014. Edition 2/ 12, Digital C-Type print, 21 x 25 cm ÂŁ3,000 incl. s/s vat
Zoe Study 02, 2014. Edition 2/12, Digital C-Type print, 21 x 25 cm £3,000 incl. s/s vat
Caroline Study 02, 2014. Edition 4/12, Digital C-Type print, 21 x 25 cm ÂŁ3,000 incl. s/s vat
Isabella Study 02, 2014. Edition 5/12, Digital C-Type print, 21 x 25 cm ÂŁ3,000 incl. s/s vat
Maisie Broadhead lives and works in London. She graduated in 2009 from the Royal College of Art with a MA in Jewellery. A signature work from her new series is included in “Open Spaces - Mind Maps”, an exhibition at the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden from March – May this year. The artist has also exhibited at the National Gallery of Victoria Australia, Design Museum London, National Gallery London, CaixaForum Barcelona and CaixaForum Madrid. Broadhead won the prestigious Jerwood Makers Open in 2013. In 2014, she received a grant from the Arts Council England for a large public commission at the Brighton Pavilion. Awards & Commissions 2018 2014 2013 2012 2010
Arts Foundation Nomination, 25th Anniversary, £,1000 prize Awarded the Pavilion Contemporary 3 An Arts Council England funded, £20,000 commission, to create new work for installation in to The Royal Pavilion, Brighton. Awarded the Jerwood Makers Open A £7,500 commission by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation to create a body of new work as part of the 2013 Jerwood Makers Open programme. St Johns College, Cambridge University Commission A £10,000 commission to create a body of new work, and research, culminating in an exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Collaboration with Professor Ulinka Rublack. National Gallery Commission Commissioned to produce an installation film work to be included as part of the Seduced By Art: Photography Past and Present exhibition at the National Gallery, London. National Maritime Museum Commission Commissioned to create a collection of work created in collaboration with local GCSE students culminating in an exhibition at the National Maritime Museum, London. Shortlisted Young Masters Art Prize, UK
Solo shows 2018 Re-Frame, Duo show with Caroline Broadhead, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester (October 2018 - April 2019) 2016 Pearls, Paul Smith Albemarle Street Gallery, London Pearls, Gallery S O (with Sarah Myerscough), London 2015 A Young Man’s Progress, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge 2014 Peepers, Royal Pavilion, Brighton Broadhead’s Women, Sarah Myerscough Gallery, London 2012 Rose Tinted Monocles, Sarah Myerscough Gallery, London 2010 House of Fake, Sarah Myerscough Gallery, London Selected Group Exhibitions 2017 The Learned Society of Extra Ordinary Objects, Somerset House, London Reportrait, Nottingham Museum and Art Gallery, Nottingham Must-sees - Jewellery in the Arts exhibition, Schmuck Museum, Pforzheim, Germany 2016 Open Spaces - Mind Maps, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden 2015 A Sense of Jewellery, The Goldsmiths’ Centre, London 2013 Jerwood Makers Open, Jerwood Space, London Modern Makers, Chatsworth House & Sotheby’s Auction House, Bakewell 2012 Seduced By Art: Photography Past and Present, The National Gallery, London Unexpected Pleasures: The Art and Design of contemporary Jewellery, The Design Museum, London / National Gallery of Victoria, Victoria, Australia 2011 Take The Chair, collaboration with Caroline Broadhead, Marsden Woo Gallery, London
Maisie Broadhead Royal Pavilion Brighton 2014. Photo Andrew Matthews
SARAH MYERSCOUGH GALLERY
Viewings by appointment only Studio 401, Southbank House Black Prince Rd, London SE1 7SJ UK Tel: +44 (0) 20 7495 0069 info@sarahmyerscough.com