Barry Flanagan, R.A.

Waddington Galleries, London, where acquired by the present owner 7th June 1991

London, Waddington Galleries, Barry Flanagan, 21st May - 16th June 1990, cat. no.5.

E. Juncosa et al., Barry Flanagan Sculpture 1965-2005, exh. cat., Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin 2006, p.106, illustrated.

 

The sculpture has recently been rewaxed and is in very good overall condition. There are a few very minor light spots of staining. Please contact the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions about the present work.
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'Thematically the choice of the hare is quite a rich and expressive sort of model; the conventions of the cartoon and the investment of human attributes into the animal world is a very well practiced device, in literature and film etc., and is really quite poignant. And on a practical level, if you consider what conveys situation and meaning and feeling in a human figure, the range of expression is in fact far more limited than the device of investing an animal -a hare especially- with the expressive attributes of a human being. The ears, for instance, are really able to convey far more than a squint in an eye of a figure, or grimace on the face of a model.' (Barry Flanagan, interview with Judith Bumpus, quoted in Barry Flanagan: Prints 1970-1983, exhibition catalogue, The Tate Gallery, London, 1986, p.15).

Flanagan cast a series of Boxing Hares throughout the 1980s, in a range of different sizes, and often paired two hares together, sparring one against another. The hare in the present work, with its straight back, curled tail and raised paws, appears in various versions of The Boxing Ones, his steadfast pose set to ward off the fighter coming towards him.

The hare's animated form perfectly articulates the rich theatrical possibilities of anthropomorphism, a subject that occupied the artist's imagination from early in his career. Flanagan's first notebook sketches and etchings of various fowl and house pets experimentally used animals as vehicles for the direct and economical display of human attributes, but it was not until this interest coincided with Flanagan's return to bronze casting in 1979 that the theme took on primary focus in his work.  This change also marked a departure from the abstract and theoretical 'soft forms' of the 1960s and 1970s, as the latter part of Flanagan's career was dominated by representational work.

It was the hare that held a particularly important place in Flanagan's own imagination, and he was also intrigued by the significant position of the animal within the wider cultural context. He was particularly affected by The Leaping Hare by George Ewart Evans and David Thomson, which was first published in 1972. This study delves into various cultures' legends and mythologies, touching on the hare's metaphorical and symbolic significance throughout history. The Egyptians and Chinese associated the hare with the concept of life itself, and the animal has been a symbol of volatility, rebirth, and renewal. In an interview on BBC Radio, Flanagan explained how he became fascinated with these notions: 'The fact that the hare, culturally, has a particular sort of place in the imagination; I share this. And having sighted the hare, on the last big snows, bounding quite relaxedly, East to West by the Sussex Downs, it's very nice to know that friends have all stood around one of these bronze hares produced, and they've decided that the anatomy is a complement to the mind's eye of appreciation of the lilt or run of this leaping hare, which is very gratifying' (Barry Flanagan, Kaleidoscope BBC Radio 4, January 1982).

In the catalogue that accompanied the 1982 Venice Biennale, at which Flanagan was selected to represent Britain, Tim Hilton writes of the symbolism implicit in Flanagan's choice of the hare: 'This little beast, fast and fleeting, active in the spring, standing upright only for a second or two, can carry many of Flanagan's purposes. It is the consummation of the vein of humour in his art. But it also has serious artistic purposes as a vehicle for formal variations. I think we would be wrong not to recognise that there are numerous forms and attitudes taken by the hare that repeat a kind of classic modern figure sculpture... It can be thought of as a personal, or a person; or as a symbol of the person; or as a symbol of some universal principle.' (Barry Flanagan: Sculpture, exhibition catalogue, The British Council, London, 1982, p. 14)