The prospect of a Royal Academy review of 20th Century British sculpture is exciting for two reasons. The first is that it is yet another indicator that British art from that period is starting to get the recognition it deserves both critically and in the commercial markets. Secondly because, for one reason or another, sculpture has always played second fiddle to the more easily marketable medium of painting.
British art in the twentieth century has for many years been considered less exciting and innovative than that which was going on in mainland Europe and the United States. Our Artists appeared on the whole to focus on the more traditional Artists skills of painting and formal sculpture, and established institutes such as the Royal Academy surely did little to dispel this perception. However Britain was (and to a certain extent still is) the the worlds most truly international nation. A significant reason for this is our large former Empire which brought cultures from every corner of the world together filling both our museums and our city's, it is reflected in the English Language which is constantly absorbing words and phrases from other languages, has no single clear root language, and has the largest vocabulary of any language, but possibly most significantly (at least for the purpose of this blog) it is apparent in our Art. At a time when the USA was trying to discover it cultural identity, and most of western Europe was wrestling with the weight if it's own history, Artists in Britain showed an assuredness and willingness to use the lessons of past to understand the present, creating art that is international in it's influences and tone but truly British in execution.
This is something that 'Modern British Sculpture' tries to show us in one of the first rooms we enter. Sculptural pieces by Leon Underwood, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore and their contemporaries converse with antiquities loaned from the collections of the British Museum and the V&A. To be able to see a carved basalt head from Easter Island and reliefs from ancient Persia alongside masterpieces from the the first half of the last ceuntury is a rare treat that allows us insight into the scholarly attitudes that these great artist had towards the execution of their work.
In a later room we are presented with a wonderful juxtaposition; Jacob Epstien's monumental masterpiece Adam (1938) alongside and an uncharacteristically diminutive Henry Moore - Snake (1924). Despite their differing scales, both works are linked in both subject and ideology, Epstien's Adam's intimidating manhood shocked viewers in the 1930's (there were still some averted eyes today!) even though they could have seen equally revealing pieces in the African or Polynesian sections of the British Museum, to be confronted in this way by a contemporary sculptor was an affront. Snake similarly recalls the style of ancient sculptors, this time of a more North African /Central Asian influence, but as it seems to smirk at the viewer in an almost cartoonish fashion it seems to implicate us in something secret and shameful.
Another of the many highlights of this show is a chance to see Victor Pasmore and Richard Hamilton's collaborative work an Exhibit (1957). Initially the installation seems to owe more to some of Pasmore's architectural scale Constructivist Abstracts than Hamilton's collages and ground breaking Pop Art experiments, however in my opinion neither Artist produced such an involving piece again in their respective careers. It is both visual striking and mentally engaging, asking questions, among other things, about how art and particularly sculpture is consumed and interacted with by the public, the place of art in the gallery setting and the artist as curator. As the viewer moves around the artwork we create our own perspectives and we become the visual editor as well consumer; 'Relational Aesthetics' forty years before the term was even coined .
To say that the next room is dominated by Anthony Caro's magnificent Early One Morning (1962) should tell you all you need to know about the quality of the rest of the works in this exhibition, other notable contributions include Tony Crag's Stack (1975), Damien Hirst's Let's Eat Out Doors Today (1990) and Richard Long's Chalk Line (1984). Even as a fan of twentieth century British Art I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of work on view here, I haven't always been impressed by Royal Academy shows, in my opinion their last few exhibitions have missed the mark slightly, but on this occasion the selection is both challenging and revealing presenting British sculpture in the light it deserves to be shown in.
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