Phyllida barlow biography of michael

Frances Morris, Director Tate Modern, said: "Barlow's practice implicitly acknowledges that in a world saturated with objects, the role of sculpture and the job of the sculptor might be less about making things than generating a particular type of experience of the work, and of the world in which it temporarily resides."

Former BBC arts editor Will Gompertz previously described her work as "using the destroyed and the discarded, the fragile and the overlooked, to make works that are often displayed in the marbled halls of the art establishment".

Iwan Wirth, president of Hauser & Wirth, said Barlow was a "cherished friend as well as a visionary artist".

"Her generosity of spirit extended through her art, her writings, and her many years of teaching and mentorship," he said.

"A truly thoughtful and companionable human being, Phyllida was a guiding light and inspiration to so many."

Phyllida Barlow: Fifty Years of Drawing

Published by Hauser & Wirth Publishers.
Edited with text by Sara Harrison. Interviews by Hans Ulrich Obrist.

Inside Phyllida Barlow’s abundant archive of drawings, from her days as an art student to her later works

Reproducing over works on paper spanning 50 years, from to , this publication presents a crucial part of British sculptor Phyllida Barlow’s (–) oeuvre. Although Barlow destroyed many of her sculptures during her career, she amassed a prolific archive of drawings dating back to the s, when she was a student at Chelsea College of Art in London. While these works on paper range in style, they demonstrate a consistency in color and form and in their exploration of ideas related to structures, architectural interiors and urban surroundings. In an interview with Hans Ulrich Obrist, Barlow provides insight into these drawings that were not preparations but, rather, daily exercises done before, during and after the creation of her sculptures. Originally published in , this new edition includes an updated biography chronicling Barlow’s final years.

For almost 60 years, British artist Phyllida Barlow took inspiration from her surroundings to create imposing installations that can be at once menacing and playful. She created large-scale yet anti-monumental sculptures from inexpensive, low-grade materials such as cardboard, fabric, plywood, polystyrene, scrim, plaster and cement. These constructions were often painted in industrial or vibrant colors, the seams of their construction left at times visible, revealing the means of their making.

Barlow’s restless invented forms stretch the limits of mass, volume and height as they block, straddle and balance precariously. The audience is challenged into a new relationship with the sculptural object, the gallery environment and the world beyond.

‘There’s something about walking around sculpture that has the possibility of being reflective, like walking through a landscape,’ Barlow has said. ‘The largeness of sculpture has that infinite possibility to make one engage beyond just the object itself and into other realms of experience.’

Barlow exhibited extensively across institutions internationally and in represented Britain at the Venice Biennale.