The Problem of Sculpture in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s
texts by David Briers, David Dye, Garth Evans, Jim Rogers, John Cobb, Jon Wood, Katherine Gili, Keith Milow, Paul Neagu, Peter Hide, Roelof Louw, Shirley Cameron
Henry Moore Institute, 2011
This exhibition catalogue returns to the sculpture made in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s, a highly fertile and experimental period which witnessed dramatic changes in our understanding of sculpture as a medium.
It invites contemporary readers both to reconsider differences between practices, whilst also thinking retrospectively about what shared ideas about sculpture circulated at this time.
It is structured through three themes: ‘Manual Thinking’, which focuses on the role of the touch – of the hand of the artist and the viewer – in sculpture; ‘Standing’, which looks at the treatment of vertical form, both abstract and figurative, freestanding and performed; and ‘Ground work’ which considers importance attached to the ground in these years, looking at the relationship between the three-dimensional representation of landscape and its two dimensional, photographic rendition.
Published on the occasion of the exhibition United Enemies: The Problem of Sculpture in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s at Henry Moore Institure, Leeds, 1 December 2011 – 11 March 2012.
