FREE
gallery guide
Sketching Sundays* 1st Sunday of every month, 12.30-3.30pm Come and spend a relaxing Sunday afternoon drawing in the galleries! Stations will be set up around Floors 1 and 2, materials provided Feelgood Fridays 2nd Friday of every month Come to a talk or activity inspired by our Collections programme
2019 – Celebration of Sculpture
This work was jointly acquired by The New Art Gallery and Birmingham Museum Trust as part of the Art Fund International project (2007-2012). The Art Fund gave six regional consortiums £1million to collect international art in order to strengthen regional collecting and its contemporary relevance. It is the first time this work has been shown in the context of our collections spaces and is placed by the window looking out towards the canal basin, where new apartments are juxtaposed with derelict buildings and warehouses. This sculpture can represent both the outline of contemporary dwellings, as well as the emptiness of old decayed factories and vacant shops. A dominating presence in the domestic sphere of the Garman
Ryan Collection, it is as impactful as some of Epstein’s monumental works in the built environment and those reflecting the society in which he lived. Bjartalíð is inspired by the temporary shelters and dwellings common on the Faroe Islands, and everyday buildings which have fallen into disrepair, describing his work as a protest against contemporary architecture, emphasised by the use of recycled materials, like scraps of wood and discarded furniture. The sculpture house has an association with childhood, a ‘dolls house’ or ‘tree house’ used for escapism in play. In contemporary society it alludes to the make-shift shelters of political refugees, with a visual fragility, linking to notions of displacement and alienation.
Morgan’s sculpture subverts the traditional notion of sweet ‘love birds’. Historically paired together in cages, this often resulted in them attacking and killing one another. Here the group of birds literally create a ‘heart attack’ (myocardial infarction), as they rip apart a human heart. Linking to the notion that love, although thought of as idyllic and enchanting, can be cruel and tortuous. Certainly Epstein’s complicated love-life is a testament to this. His dual family life led to heartbreak, and tragedy runs through the Garman-Epstein family (for example Theo Garman died following a heart attack; his sister Esther was left broken hearted and killed herself; and their sister Kitty had a powerful but destructive love affair with Lucian Freud).
The New Art Gallery was the first regional collection to purchase Morgan’s work, which has been highly sought after for private collections and is endemic of contemporary culture’s re-appraisal of the art of taxidermy in the 2000s. This work made a departure into a new medium for the Collection and follows on from previous acquisitions committed to collecting artists who push the boundaries of sculpture. Within the dedicated themed context, linking with the strands of Epstein’s career and interests, Morgan’s work is placed alongside Epstein’s depiction of his beloved dog Frisky, his most faithful companion.
Gaudier-Brzeska and Epstein became close friends after meeting in London, where they had both settled to pursue their artistic careers, Epstein in 1905 and Gaudier-Brzeska five years later. GaudierBrzeska had no formal artistic training, making his prolific output prior to a tragic death in the First World War at the age of only 23, all the more remarkable. Alongside Epstein, he was associated with the Vorticist movement, which embraced the machine-age, and rejected a pure truth to nature. Gaudier-Brzeska also found inspiration from non-European objects at the British Museum, in particular the more dynamic and primitive forms of African sculpture.
Following Gaudier-Brzeska’s death in the trenches fighting in the French army, Epstein abandoned Vorticism, and destroyed his most famous sculpture Rock Drill, which had become for him a frightening omen of destruction. This naturalistic bronze, sees the abstracted form of female figure metamorphosise, emerging from the material through folds of drapery.
Wiltshire was commissioned to make this work for an exhibition at Walsall Art Gallery in 1997. This sculpture focuses on the anatomy of one of Epstein’s most controversial works: Adam. Adam, a huge alabaster direct-carved representation of primitive man, caused excitement and controversy when it was first shown 80 years ago. It was purchased by a Lancashire businessman who saw the work as a good commercial opportunity. It was shown in Blackpool as a curiosity, exploiting its public notoriety, alongside other so-called ‘peep’ or ‘freak’ shows, to paying audiences. Between 1954-61 it was part of Louis Tussaud’s waxwork museum, before being purchased by Lord Harewood and shown in a large retrospective of
Epstein’s work at the Edinburgh Festival, then placed in its current home, Harewood House, in the 1970s. Transforming Adam’s genitalia to ice, and positioning it on a tripod, reminiscent of the found object utilised in Epstein’s Rock Drill, this sculpture will also be destroyed then resurrected (on a daily basis). The male symbol of sexuality, loses its power and is reduced to water. Wiltshire’s current practice is photography and performance based. She is a senior lecturer at the Royal College of Art, where her research interests include gender politics, sexuality, radical feminist theory, the male gaze, and maternity and creative practice.
Moore was regarded as working against the tide when he chose abstraction over naturalism in the post-war period. Like Epstein, Moore appreciated African and Oceanic art and also enjoyed exploring the collections of the British Museum. Crediting Epstein as an influence, in his obituary Moore wrote ‘he took the brick bats for modern art, he took the insults, he took the howls of derision.’ Moore himself became extremely influential to new generations of sculptors. Throughout his career he was committed to the experience of sculpture outdoors, and the positioning of public artworks in the landscape. The organic forms of his work are suggestive of the reclining female body and reminiscent of rolling hills or craggy rocks. According to Moore this fusion of
human and landscape forms served as ‘a metaphor of the relationship of humanity with the earth’. Although primarily known as a portraitist, Epstein spent considerable time in nature, particularly in the 1930s where he made a large body of work inspired by Epping Forest, examples of which can be seen alongside, and undertook outdoor commissions such as the memorial to W.H. Hudson in Hyde Park. Moore’s two piece reclining figures series began in 1959, and this theme pre-occupied him throughout the 1960s. Moore’s interest in the multi-part sculptural form can be seen to link to Ancient Greek sculpture, as well as Rodin’s embrace of the fragmented aesthetic.
Floor 2
This sculpture was made in November 2009 while the artist was Artist in Residence at the Gallery to explore and make work in relation to the Epstein Archive. The artist was interested in Theo Garman’s difficult relationship with his father. While there is a drawing of Theo by Epstein in the Garman Ryan Collection, he is his only child that he did not produce a sculpture of, and this was something that Bob felt he should rectify, as represented in the title of the work. Bob’s process of making the sculpture came directly from reading about Epstein’s technique. Epstein would make an armature and then slowly build the clay out from that piece by piece. Bob used the same technique with recycled blocks of wood instead of pieces of clay.
The work was embellished with other found elements, some from Walsall Canal, and quotes from Theo he found in the Archives. The composition represents Theo’s character and state of mind – larger than life, a bit awkward and fragmented. Epstein’s son experienced crippling mental health issues, which attributed to his early death at the age of only 29.
Floor 2
The fridge is an almost invisible object, banal, mass-produced and merging into the domestic interior alongside other ‘white goods’. In Taylor’s works of the 1990s, falling somewhere in between representation and abstraction, the functional minimalism and purity of such objects are celebrated. The size of a refrigerator is akin to that of a human body, thus can be seen to represent a human presence in the space. The work can also be seen as a metaphor for life and death. It speaks of preservation – both in the appliances function and the fact that it normally contains nutrients to nourish the body, but also alludes to death and decay; ice cold funereal symbols, coffins or headstones, ghost-like apparitions. They have an Epstein scale
and presence to them and act as a kind of Memento mori, typical in Ancient Greek sculpture. Developing his interest in architecture, Taylor recently worked with the Gallery’s architects, Caruso St John, on the British Pavilion for the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2018. This work came to the Gallery from the collection of Charles Saatchi, who was a champion of the Young British Artists of the 90s. He dispersed some of his collection to 7 galleries across the country, via the Art Fund, to enable audiences outside London to access the work, in the same way as Kathleen Garman.
Floor 2
FLOWERS & STILL LIFE
Yoshihiro Suda (Japanese, b.1969) Tulip (Fleming Parrot) 2002 Painted wood sculpture
This hyper-real painted sculpture of a tulip is hand-carved from magnolia wood. The flower is frozen in time, on the gallery wall. It allows us to contemplate the beauty and fragility of the everyday, fleeting moments, and the transience of nature. Beauty is short-lived, but in this work is preserved forever. It offers a moment’s pause, a time for reflection in an otherwise busy world. Plants only live by adapting to their environments, and the integration of his work within a built environment is an integral part of Suda’s practice, as well as ensuring each work is as true to nature as possible. Painstakingly carving and handpainting each piece, using traditional Japanese tools, he may take many days to complete a single petal or leaf. Suda says of his work: “Simply, I want to know how
detailed I can make it, how real I can make it. This is an old-fashioned way of thinking, to make something so naturalistic that it looks like the original”. Epstein was adamant that his sculptures should be true to life, refusing to enhance his sitter’s features in anyway, and emphasising irregularities, giving more of a hyper-real authentic depiction. In his words: “there is no question of cheating nature…it is always necessary to accentuate some particular trait that gives character to the face.”
Floor 2
RELIGION
Yinka Shonibare (British, b.1962) Alien, 1998 Batik fabric sculpture
Shonibare is a British-Nigerian artist who explores themes such as cultural identity, colonialism and globalisation in his work. Alien is made in his trademark brightly coloured ‘African’ batik fabric, which he buys from Brixton market. This fabric thought of as distinctly ‘African’ is actually Dutch wax-printed cotton, and he uses it to examine the construction of identity and tangled inter-relationship between Africa and Europe and their respective economic and political histories. These fabrics were first manufactured in Europe to sell in Indonesian markets, and then were introduced to Africa by Dutch and British settlers in the 19th century. Today one of the main exporters of this fabric is based in Manchester, with many of its employees’ immigrants. They became
popular in Africa in the 1960s when the bright patterns were worn as a reflection of the euphoria felt after African Independence. Shonibare uses this material in his work as a symbol for cultural confusion, and the fear of the unknown and ‘otherness’ in contemporary British society, be it prejudice attributed to religion, race or culture. Epstein was greatly influenced by African art in his work, and himself amassed a great collection of world objects, including African objects which are now in the collection of the British Museum.
ILLUSTRATION & SYMBOLISM
Matias Faldbakken (Norwegian, b.1973) Untitled (Jerry Can Rod) 2011 18 Jerry cans and a metal rod
The ‘jerry can’ was first manufactured in the 1930s for the German military to carry fuel. It was replicated in the 1940s in the US and used by Allied serviceman. Its name came from ‘Jerry’ being the wartime nickname for Germans. Adding to the sense of danger and violence of the work are steel rods which pierce and compress the cans. Positioned alongside, Epstein’s Study for Rock Drill also references a readymade sculpture, Esptein having utilised an actual rock drill in the composition, which pre-dated Marcel Duchamp’s famous Fountain (generally thought of as the first example of a ‘ready-made’ sculpture) by several years. Epstein famously destroyed
Rock Drill, having witnessed at first hand the destruction caused by man-made machines in the First World War. Acquired as part of Art Fund International, its purchase was timely, as the term ‘jerrycan’ was in the news in 2012, following a controversial statement by a Conservative minister who urged the public to fill jerry cans with fuel in preparation for a strike by fuel tanker drivers. These comments caused chaos at petrol stations and was criticised by the fire service, concerned that people would store fuel in their homes, creating a major fire risk.
COLLECTION HIGHLIGHT
Jacob Epstein Study for Rock Drill 1913 Charcoal drawing
Several of the works featured in our 2019 Sculpture in Focus trail reference Epstein’s iconic sculpture Rock Drill (c.1913-1915). This totemic work represented a revolutionary moment for modern sculpture. A fusion of man and machine, the work was a symbol of phallic power inspired by African carving. Over 3 metres tall, the plaster figure was perched on a real miner’s drill, and had a foetus sheltered inside its rib cage.
At first a triumph of the Vorticist movement and its embrace of the machine age, following the First World War Epstein destroyed it, discarding the drill and mutilating the figure. Epstein said in his 1940 autobiography: “I made and mounted a machine-like robot,
visored, menacing, and carrying within itself its progeny, protectively ensconced. Here is the armed, sinister figure of today and tomorrow. No humanity, only the terrible Frankenstein’s monster we have made ourselves into…” The bronze cast Torso in Metal from Rock Drill now belongs in the collection of Tate, but has none of the optimism which is conveyed in Epstein’s energetic pre-war studies. It had become for him an omen of death and destruction. While rejected by the artist, conversely it is now often regarded as his most important work. A reconstruction, authorised by Kathleen Garman in 1974, belongs to Birmingham Museum Trust.
Map
The Sculpture in Focus trail positions a key piece of sculpture from our Permanent Collection within each of our ten themed collection rooms. Our Collections are laid out thematically; we hope you enjoy exploring the spaces in this unique way. You don’t have to follow the arrows as per this guide, have a look for the room name you are in, and read the corresponding information which explains the artwork.
Accessibility
We aim to make our Collections as accessible as possible. Please let us know if you require this information provided in Large Print, or would be interested in a Curator’s Talk, Audio Described Tour, or BSL interpretation. We are also an Age, Autism and Dementia Friendly venue. Please let us know if you are a group with additional needs. Please feel free to use materials provided for drawing and play. For further information on any aspects of our Collections contact
Julie Brown, Collections Curator julie.brown@walsall.gov.uk 01922 654419 You can find out more about our Collections online:
www.thenewartgallerywalsall.org.uk/collections
Look out for the yellow floor symbols. Use this guide to find out more information about the artworks.
Large print available on request
To coincide with the 60th anniversary year of Jacob Epstein's death, in 2019 we are celebrating Sculpture in all forms throughout our Collections programme. The Sculpture in Focus trail positions a key piece of sculpture from our Permanent Collection within each of our ten themed collection rooms. The trail features an eclectic array of artists and materials, from a bronze figure by early Modernist and friend of Epstein, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska; to an African batik material alien by leading contemporary artist Yinka Shonibare, celebrating Epstein’s embrace of world cultures. Also included is a wooden assemblage by Bob and Roberta Smith, paying homage to Epstein’s technique of construction around an armature, and an ice sculpture by Hermione Wiltshire, inspired by Epstein’s controversial sculpture Adam. www.thenewartgallerywalsall.org.uk #SculptureinFocus
Rodin: rethinking the fragment, A Spotlight Loan from:
Daniel Silver support from: