Nationality British Known for Sculpture | Name Phyllida Barlow Role Artist | |
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Books Raphael Hefti: Launching Rockets Never Gets Old Similar People Nairy Baghramian, Tacita Dean, Rachel Whiteread, Martin Creed, Phyllida Law | ||
Phyllida barlow set at the fruitmarket gallery until 18 october 2015
Phyllida Barlow CBE RA (born 4 April 1944 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England) is a British artist. Barlow studied at Chelsea College of Art (1960–63) and the Slade School of Art (1963–66). After joining the staff in the late 1960s, Barlow taught at the Slade School of Art for more than forty years before retiring in 2009 and is now Emerita Professor of Fine Art. Phyllida Barlow has had an important influence on younger generations of artists through her work and long teaching career in London art schools. At the Slade School of Fine Art, her students included Turner Prize-winning and nominated artists Rachel Whiteread and Angela de la Cruz. In 2011 Barlow became a Royal Academician and in 2015 she was made a CBE for her services to the arts in the Queen's New Year's Honours. In 2017, Barlow represented Great Britain at the Venice Biennale.
Contents
- Phyllida barlow set at the fruitmarket gallery until 18 october 2015
- Interview with hoard sculptor phyllida barlow
- Early life and education
- Work
- Selected solo exhibitions
- Selected group exhibitions
- References
Interview with hoard sculptor phyllida barlow
Early life and education
Although born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1944 (as her psychiatrist father Erasmus Darwin Barlow, a great-grandson of Charles Darwin, was stationed there at the time), Barlow was brought up in London. She studied at Chelsea College of Art (1960–63) under the tutelage of George Fullard who was to influence Barlow's perception of what sculpture can be. “Fullard, among others, was able to impart that the act of making was in itself an adventure. A sculpture that falls over or breaks is just as exciting as one that reveals itself perfectly formed. All the acts of making in the world are there to be plundered and contain within themselves the potential to be transferred to the studio and adapted.”
Whilst studying at Chelsea, Barlow met her husband artist and writer Fabian Peake, the son of Mervyn Peake, author of Gormenghast. She later attended the Slade School of Fine Art from 1963–66 to further study sculpture. Barlow and her husband have five children together.
Work
"Maybe I don't think enough about beauty in my work because I'm so curious about other qualities, abstract qualities of time, weight, balance, rhythm; collapse and fatigue versus the more upright dynamic notions of maybe posture...the state that something might be in. Is it growing or shrinking, is it going up or down, is it folding or unfolding?" – Phyllida Barlow, The Guardian 2016.
Best known for her colossal sculptural projects, Barlow uses "a distinctive vocabulary of inexpensive materials such as plywood, cardboard, plaster, cement, fabric and paint" to create striking sculptures. Drawing on memories of familiar objects from her surroundings, Barlow's practice is grounded in an anti-monumental tradition characterised by her physical experience of handling materials, which she transforms through processes of layering, accumulation and juxtaposition. "Obtrusive and invasive, Barlow's large-scale sculptural objects are frequently arranged in complex installations in which mass and volume seem to be at odds with the space around them. Their role is restless and unpredictable: they block, interrupt, intervene, straddle and perch, both dictating and challenging the experience of viewing." Her constructions are often crudely painted in industrial or synthetic colours, resulting in abstract, seemingly unstable forms.
Since 2010, Barlow has been represented by Hauser & Wirth. Barlow's work has been presented in solo exhibitions around the world. In 2014 Barlow was commissioned to create new work for the Duveen Galleries at Tate Britain, London, England.
In 2016, Barlow will present a solo exhibition of new work at the Kunsthalle Zurich. Barlow is one of four artists to be nominated for the inaugural Hepworth prize, the UK's first prize for sculpture, and her work will be on display at the Hepworth Wakefield from October 2016.
Selected solo exhibitions
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2008
2005
Selected group exhibitions
2016
2013
2012
2011
2010