For the tenth edition of Sotheby’s annual outdoor sculpture installation ’Beyond Limits: The Landscape of British Sculpture 1950-2015’, the auction house has invited respected art historian and commentator Tim Marlow to curate an exhibition that celebrates the understated success of British sculpture.
Opened yesterday in the majestic grounds of Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, the showcase hones in on the post-war period, from 1950 to the present day. Working together with Simon Stock, Sotheby’s senior international specialist in impressionist and modern art, Tim Marlow has expertly pulled together 39 works by 30 artists and woven them into the gardens at Chatsworth, where they frame the estate’s sweeping vistas. Visitors can witness how pieces from the 1960s by pioneers such as Reg Butler and Barbara Hepworth paved the way for present day artists such as Sarah Lucas, Mark Wallinger and Conrad Shawcross.
’We’ve been able to curate an exhibition that responds to the growing interest in outdoor sculpture, and also explores and celebrates the rise of British sculpture,’ says Marlow, who serves as director of artistic programmes at the Royal Academy. ’The relationship of the landscape to the works on display is integral – whether they were directly inspired by or conceived in opposition to the idea of landscape. The result, I hope, will be a sparky, creative conversation between some of the best British sculpture of the last 65 years and one of the greatest of all British country houses and its surrounding landscape.’
