'Beyond Limits' 2015 Chatsworth

'Titled Beyond Limits: The Landscape of British Sculpture 1950-2015, the exhibition runs from 14 September until 25 October and is the biggest staged to date by Sotheby’s at Chatsworth. Guest curated by Tim Marlow, the Director of Artistic Programmes at The Royal Academy of Arts, the exhibition will feature more than 30 monumental sculptures woven into the landscape of the famous garden at Chatsworth, home to the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire.

Beyond Limits will consider the breadth and international impact of some of the best sculpture by Britain’s leading artists of the past 65 years. Highlights include Barbara Hepworth’s ‘Three Obliques (Walk-In)’, Anthony Caro’s ‘Sunshine’ and Lynn Chadwick’s ‘Pair of Walking Figures – Jubilee’ alongside works by Antony Gormley, Sarah Lucas, Reg Butler and Philip King '

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/2015/beyond-limits-l15010.html

Fantastic exhibition as usual - my favourites......

 Simon Periton (1964-present) attended St Martin’s School of Art, London, where he was influenced by fashion, stating: “I don’t view an interesting fashion designer any differently than an interesting artist”. More recently he has worked in a wider range of media and reflected influences ranging from organic forms to punk, psychedelia and the gothic. Guerilla Gardener is made from steel and coated in spray paint and lacquer. Despite Periton taking inspiration from the natural world and organic forms, his work is not designed to appear pleasant and green in the traditional sense. Periton has also been fascinated by alchemy and transformative chemical processes.

Woodrow (1948-present) studied at Winchester School of Art, St. Martin’s and Chelsea School of Art. He was one of a number of British sculptors (including Tony Cragg) to emerge in the late 1970’s on to the international contemporary art scene. For his early work he initially used materials found in dumps, used car lots and scrap yards by partially embedding them in plaster. Woodrow’s works have often featured a narrative element. ‘Regardless of History’ was installed in Trafalgar Square from 2000-2001. It is one of a range of sculptures in which Woodrow uses the book as a theme. The work is heavy on symbolism, with humanity’s fragility verses the power of nature being central. 

Antony Gormley (1950-present) is best known for monumental public sculptures such as the Angel of the North and Another Place on Crosby Beach. Gormley grew up in a wealthy family in West Yorkshire. He studied archaeology, anthropolgy and the history of art at Cambridge, before going on to St Martin’s School of Art and Goldsmith’s College London. Big Guage II is made from Corten Steel and is a representation of Gormley himself, a common theme in his work. It is the frist time the sculpture has been exhibited publically. 

Barbara Hepworth

The curling shape and smooth texture of Sea Form is inspired by the landscape and beaches surrounding Hepworth’s studio in St Ives, where it was created in 1964. The sculpture is often compared to breaking waves and footprints in the sand. Hepworth had commented that her studio’s location gave her an: “extraordinary feeling being poised above the changing calligraphy of tide and water movement, sand and wind movement and the pattern of men’s and bird’s feet”. 

Sarah Lucas (1962-present) is part of the generation of young British artists, including Damien Hirst and Angus Fairhurst, who emerged during the 1990s. Her work often includes humour or puns as well as a range of media, such as collage, photography and collected objects. In the late 1990s Lucas worked on a series of selfportraits focusing on femininity, one of which can be seen right. Kevin and Florian are both made from polished bronze and are both gigantic in scale and fantastical in nature, appearing to have been dropped from a fairytale. Lucas’ work often features everyday objects in unusual settings, transferred to a massive scale. 

Anya Gallacio (1963-present) often focuses on organic materials within her work. She grew up in London and attended Goldsmiths College, following which she exhibited alongside Damien Hirst and Sarah Lucas. Sometimes Gallaccio’s work organically changes during the exhibition. For example In Red on Green, ten thousand rose heads placed on a bed of their stalks gradually withered as the exhibition went on.

Conrad Shawcross (1977-present) specialises in large mechanical sculptures, incorporating philosophical and scientific ideas. He plays with movement to create something that appears random but is in fact intricately designed, reflecting his interest in the relationship between nature and technology. Dappled Light of the Sun, I-III focusses on the natural patterns of geometry. Shawcross has used a mathematical form to create a canopy of tetrahedrons using weathered steel, which changes colour in varying light. Each cloud is unique and stands on skinny stilts. 

Sandy Brown is a ceramic artist, potter, sculptor and painter of international fame. Her work is easily recognisable by its’ bright and bold colours. Much like Hepworth, Brown has been inspired by her workplace environment and the surrounding area. Brown’s studio is based in Appledore, on the North Devon coast, where white houses overlook a working shipyard and a dry, empty dock. Brown’s studio is painted in bright kingfisher colours, reflective of her Temple. It is made using a wooden frame with ceramic columns, arches and 5200 tiles. Impressively, it is also hand painted. It is designed to be ‘a temple for the self’, that is a temple for thinking and reflecting.

Phillip King

Ghenghis khan is made from steel and reflects American abstract expressionism. In the 1960’s King created a series of works using the upwards pointing cone as a starting point. Using features such as colours, antlers and wings, King was able to create recognisably different sculptures which he felt were able to shock the viewer: “I want people to stand aghast for a second, and I hope they’ll d

Tony Cragg (1949-present) was born in Liverpool. His early works were largely site specific pieces. The majority of Cragg’s work interact with its’ surroundings, both in terms of the landscape around them and the objects within that landscape. Manipulation is a relatively recent work, being made in 2008, and is considered to be an attempt at describing or explaining the indescribable. Manipulation is cast in bronze and is effectively a series of arms reaching out for each other in a monster-like motion.