Barry Flanagan

Private Collection, Illinois (acquired via Waddington Galleries & Richard Gray Gallery in 1991)

Christie's, London, 23 June 2006, lot 236

Private Collection

Thence by descent to the present owner

Chicago, Richard Grey Gallery, Barry Flanagan Sculpture, 17 April - 30 May 1998, p.26-27, (another cast illustrated)

Exh. Cat, Dublin, RHA Gallagher Gallery, Barry Flanagan, 16 February - 12 March 1995, (another cast illustrated)

Exh. Cat, Paris, Galerie Durand-Dessert, Barry Flanagan, 7 June - 28 July 1996, (another cast illustrated)

Exh. Cat, Recklinghausen, Kunsthalle, Barry Flanagan: Plastik und Zeichnung, 5 May - 14 July 2002, no.10, p.37, (another cast illustrated)

Exh. Cat, Nice, Musée d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain, Barry Flanagan: Sculpture et Dessin, 6 December 2002 - 25 May 2003, no. 16, p. 43 (another cast illustrated)

Exh. Cat, London, Waddington Custot Galleries, Two Pataphysicians, 8 October - 8 November 2014, no. 19, p. 54-55, (another cast illustrated)

Clare Preston, ed., Barry Flanagan, London, 2017, no. 76, p. 153, (another cast illustrated)

Barry Flanagan’s Unicorn and the Oak Tree from 1991 occupies a distinctive place within the artist’s expansive animal repertoire, in which animals become vehicles for imagination, humour and myth. Cast in bronze with a deep brown patina, the sculpture presents a rearing unicorn poised beside a stylised oak, its dynamic posture recalling the heroic stance of equestrian statuary. Yet, as is characteristic of Flanagan, this apparent monumentality is tempered by a playful, almost irreverent sensibility. The unicorn, a creature of folklore and fantasy, is rendered with a lively elasticity that softens its symbolic gravitas, while the oak tree introduces an archaic, almost totemic presence, evoking ancient mythologies and sacred landscapes.

Created during a mature period of the artist’s career, the work reflects Flanagan’s sustained engagement with bronze as a medium capable of reconciling weight and lightness, permanence and movement. Having revolutionised sculptural practice in the 1960s through his use of soft, unstable materials and his interest in Alfred Jarry’s “pataphysics”, Flanagan later returned to bronze with a renewed sense of freedom, infusing it with wit and vitality. In Unicorn and the Oak Tree, the tension between the solidity of the material and the animated, almost whimsical subject becomes central. The rearing form suggests both power and theatricality, its gesture suspended between noble assertion and playful exaggeration.

More broadly, the sculpture exemplifies Flanagan’s ability to merge the everyday, the imaginary and the archetypal. While his celebrated hares often function as anthropomorphic surrogates, here the unicorn assumes a similarly expressive role, embodying both mythic symbolism and a subtle commentary on sculptural tradition. The oak, long associated with endurance and wisdom, anchors the composition, grounding the fantastical creature within a symbolic framework that is at once ancient and personal. In this interplay between myth and material, gravity and levity, Flanagan produces a work that is both deeply rooted in sculptural history and unmistakably contemporary in spirit.