Saturday 15 February 2014

Richard Deacon - Tate Britain (and The Wilson, Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum!)

Richard Deacon, After, 1988
Richard Deacon is at Tate Britain until 27 April 2014; Deacon's 1989 sculpture Kiss and Tell (see below) is currently on display in The Wilson, Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum.

Richard Deacon came to public attention in 1981 in an exhibition called 'Objects and Sculptures' shown at the ICA and the Arnolfini. Alongside Bill Woodrow, Tony Cragg, Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor and others he was one of a loose group tagged 'New British Sculpture'. 
Whereas most of his peers forged a sculptural language that eschewed Minimalism's pure materialism in favour of figurative references and a narrative content responding to the contemporary urban and industrial social landscape, Deacon made, and continues to make, resolutely abstract work. His fantastically shaped forms betray a preoccupation with  the nature and possibilities of a wide range of material formed into hugely satisfying, beautiful and often suggestively organic shapes.
Read reviews by Rachel Cooke, Waldemar Januszczak and Alastair Sooke and a series of interviews with the artist on the Tate website.
Richard Deacon, It's Orpheus When There's Singing #7, 1978-9
Richard Deacon, Art for Other People #6, 1983
Richard Deacon, Art for Other People #12, 1984
Richard Deacon, Struck Dumb, 1988
Richard Deacon, Fold, 2012
Richard Deacon, Kiss and Tell, 1989 (On display in the Wilson, Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum)

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