Page 25 - Studio International - July August 1972

However one cares to categorize the becoming an increasingly discussed question building, or it may stand in some such enclosed
development of sculpture, both in this country and it is at the root of the concept of the City space as a city square. Putting sculpture into
and abroad, since 1945 (an arbitrary but Sculpture Project. landscape immediately raises problems, and this
convenient point when discussing new sculpture The Battersea and Holland Park open-air should be remembered when looking at the
or painting) the fact remains that the work being exhibitions can be seen as the first major work of sculptors younger than Moore and
produced by most forward-looking artists bears post-war step in this country in the showing of Hepworth. Most of them do not share the same
little superficial relationship in form or sculpture outside the art gallery context. attitude to nature, and would on the whole
materials to the popular conception of modern `The idea of sculpture in a landscape, exposed prefer more an urban and less a landscape
sculpture — as epitomized by the work of Henry to air and sky and divorced from architecture, is setting—a bombed site rather than a garden.
Moore and Barbara Hepworth. the inevitable concomitant of the works Though the searching light of a wide expanse of
Readers of any of the international art Moore and Hepworth were making—in their sky does provide a challenge, their sculpture
magazines (including Studio International) form very different ways entirely harmonious with really needs a more definite relationship to the
a rather specialized minority and may find it nature and expressive of an almost area around it.' (From the introduction by Alan
difficult to accept that the public at large has pantheistic belief in the natural order of things.. Bowness to the catalogue of the 1966 Battersea
very little contact with recent developments (or Visiting these exhibitions has been a pleasure Park Sculpture in the Open Air exhibition.)
documentation of developments) in sculpture. but also a pilgrimage, a sort of spiritual There still remained the problems of the
The reaction of the public, in part at least, is refreshment in which art and nature come `visit to the enclosure' and the limited hours of
genuine bewilderment rather than just pure together in a perfect partnership. access.
bloody-mindedness ! `This point of view has been such a
Mass communications in recent years have pervasive one that we have begun to think of After Battersea
been utilized by many artists in ways that are a landscape as the appropriate surrounding for The 'New British Sculpture/Bristol'
logical development of their interests but, sculpture. In fact this is far from the truth. Most exhibition in 1968 was an attempt to overcome
contrary to what might be expected, have of the great sculpture of the past needs a defined these problems by siting works in the central
increased rather than diminished the gulf space—it is either meant to be seen within the areas of a city, floodlighting them at night and
between artist and general public. Whether this walls and ceiling of a room, or it is directly providing documentation and full coverage in
should be a matter of concern to the artists is related to architecture. It may be part of a the news media. As with the City of London
`Sculpture in Battersea Park' exhibition 1966. Foreground sculpture by Anthony Caro. Photo courtesy GLC Parks Department.

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