Barry Flanagan: Early Works 1965-1982
27 September - 2 January, 2011
Tate Britain, Admission charge
Barry Flanagan (1941-2009) studied art at St Martin’s School of Art from 1964 to 1966, alongside artists like Gilbert & George, and Bruce McLean.
Using media as varied as cloth, felt, clay, plaster and rope, he created sculptures that were a unique exploration of the interaction between idea, thought and process. (Press Copy)
One of the first installations we encounter at the exhibition Barry Flanagan: Early Works 1965-1982 is aaing j gni aa (1965), a sculpture in mixed media. Curator Andrew Wilson relates how Flanagan, using textiles designed by fellow students, ‘drew’ into them with a sewing machine to create the fabric cases for the sculptures, and filled them with plaster. When hardened, the shapes stood upright to form this witty, multi-coloured installation, which morphs and teases as you walk around it – thus setting the theme for the rest of the exhibition.
Andrew Wilson explains how the work of Flanagan delights in the manipulation of materials and conversely, how materials can take on a life of their own. Heap 4 (1967) is a pile of red and green sandbags, filled and heaped so that they roll into place, looking for all the world like a pile of coloured, outsized sausages. Modern, yes, but the artist drew inspiration from ancient, non-western civilizations. Wilson explains how the creation of installations like No 5 ’71, sticks, ropes and twists of felt laid criss-cross into an almost tent-like shape, was tantamount to a ritual for the artist, as much a part of the creation as the materials themselves. It is a delight ‘walk-around’ as are two other, wigwam-like structures in this area.
By now, Flanagan was working with stone, and Tantric goddess (stone, 1973) a carved and painted female pudenda in the manner of an ancient fertility symbol. There are a number of metal cut-out sculptures, VII78 as night (metal, 1978) , where the light coming through the cut-out areas is at least as much a part of the sculpture as the metal. The stonework is continued in the next section with untitled (carving no. 13/81) , two limestone boulders looking as if their curving, sensuous masses had been squeezed into shape – hearkening back to the morphing material theme. There are a number of Flanagan’s drawings on display, and Wilson explains how these were central to his creation process. I rather admired his series of portraits, which includes Jack Wendler (1973), their spare, linear technique putting me in mind of Henri Matisse. The ‘line’ occurs again in Oh! Mind how you cross, 1977-8, a walk-around created by a rope trailing about a stone carving.
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| Barry Flanagan leaping hare, embellished 2/3 jan '80 1980 Tate © estate of Barry Flanagan courtesy Plubronze Ltd |
The arcane meanings of the carvings that appear throughout the exhibition are alluded to in the final area of the exhibition where Large, Leaping Hare (1982), and its sister sculpture, leaping hare, embellished, are on display. The hare features prominently in mythology, reputedly as an animal that has the power of shape-shifting. Do go along to this witty little exhibition where ancient meets modern, and material dissolves into mysterious. It is open until January 2, 2012.
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