Lot 643
  • 643

Barry Flanagan

Estimate
1,800,000 - 2,500,000 HKD
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Description

  • Barry Flanagan
  • Acrobats
  • bronze 
  • 145 (h) by 43 by 43 cm; 57 (h) by 26 1/4 by 16 by 16 in.
stamped with artist's monogram, numbered 3/3/8 and dated 03 and stamped with foundry mark
conceived in 1981, casted in 2003, the present work is artist's cast number 3 from an edition of 3, plus 3 artist's casts

Provenance

Waddington Galleries, London
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Exhibited

London, Waddington Galleries, Barry Flanagan: Sculptures in bronze 1980-1981, December 1981, p. 28, another example exhibited (illustrated)
Tokyo, British Council, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Aspects of British Art Today, February - April 1982, no. 75, p. 111, another example exhibited (illustrated). This exhibition travelled to Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts, April - May 1982; Osaka, National Museum of Art, June - July 1982; Fukuoka, Fukuoka Art Museum, August 1982; and Sapporo, Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, September - October 1982.
Berlin, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Zeitgeist: Internationale Kunst, October - December 1982, no. 79, p. 115, another example exhibited (illustrated)
Venice, British Council, British Pavilion, XXXX Venice Biennale, Barry Flanagan: Stone and Bronze Sculptures, June - September 1982, no. 24, another example exhibited. This exhibition travelled to Krefeld, Museum Haus Esters, October - December 1982; and London, Whitechapel Art Gallery, January - February 1983.
Paris, British Council, Centre Georges Pompidou, Barry Flanagan Sculptures, March - May 1983, p. 64, another example exhibited (illustrated)
Stockholm, Moderna Museet, Dialog, September - October 1985, p. 67 another example exhibited (illustrated)
London, Waddington Custot Galleries, Two Pataphysicians: Flanagan - Miró, October - November 2014, no. 15, p. 47, another example exhibited (illustrated in colour)

Literature

Enrique Juncosa, Ed., Barry Flanagan Sculpture 1965-2005, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, 2006, pp. 74, 77, another example (illustrated)

Condition

This work is in very good condition overall. Upon close examination, very minor signs of patina wear, consistent with the work's age, are found scattered around sculpture's body and base, primarily along areas of spine of the lower rabbit.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

Barry Flanagan’s hare sculptures stood out amongst his series of bronze animals as the most emblematic of his later artistic career. The hare motif made its first appearance in Flanagan’s sculptural oeuvre as the Leaping Hare which he conceived in 1979, inspired by the sight of a hare running on Sussex Downs. It soon prompted the relentless production of bronze hares in a variety of modes and guises, turning the motif into a dominating trademark of the artist.

Celebrated for the joyous wit found in his bronze hares, Flanagan’s Acrobats presents two playful hares, one attempting to balance itself on top of the other. The precarious act, suggested by the swinging hind legs of the supported hare, is counterbalanced by the strong gravitating force expressed by the hares’ outstretched arms.  As if to emphasise the intensity of their grip, their paws are modelled in a manner that they form an uninterrupted stretch of bronze without individual delineation. The continuous flow of their lean and sinuous bodily contours accentuates the space between the hares and the tenderness of their seeming gaze, a tentative silence and emotional vitality expressed not by facial features but bodily language.

This anthropomorphic quality is core to Flanagan’s sculptural concept and appeal, synonymous to his modus operandi. Commenting on his bronze sculptures, Flanagan expresses his lack of interest in modelling and his desire to pursue themes that evoke human activity and feeling. He finds human expression far more limited than that of an animal, stating that ‘the ears [of a hare] are really able to convey far more than a squint in an eye of a figure, or a grimace on the face of a model.’  (Barry Flanagan, interview with Judith Bumpus, quoted in Barry Flanagan: Prints 1970-1983, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London, 1986, p.15) Opting for expression instead of representation, the sculptural surface of Acrobats reveals the artist’s modelling method in which he hastily built up slabs of clay merely to suggest form with minimal refinement. The outcome after casting is this wonderful rippling effect of the uneven bronze surface, creating an illusion of the sculpture’s ever morphing presence under different modes and angles of illumination. By conveying movement in both form and medium, the hares that inhabited within the luscious material of the Acrobats are unveiling themselves before the viewer as Flanagan had perceived them back in the 1980s.