Barry Flanagan
Encyclopedia
Barry Flanagan RA
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...

 OBE
(January 11, 1941 - August 31, 2009) was a Welsh sculptor, best known for his bronze statues of hares.

Biography

Barry Flanagan was born in Prestatyn
Prestatyn
Prestatyn is a seaside resort, town and community in Denbighshire, North Wales. It is located on the Irish Sea coast, to the east of Rhyl. At the 2001 Census, Prestatyn had a population of 18,496.-Prehistory:...

, North Wales
North Wales
North Wales is the northernmost unofficial region of Wales. It is bordered to the south by the counties of Ceredigion and Powys in Mid Wales and to the east by the counties of Shropshire in the West Midlands and Cheshire in North West England...

. He studied at Birmingham College of Art and Crafts
Birmingham School of Art
The Birmingham School of Art was a municipal art school based in the centre of Birmingham, England. Although the organisation was absorbed by Birmingham Polytechnic in 1971 and is now part of Birmingham City University's Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, its Grade I listed building on...

 (1957–1958) before going on to St. Martin's School of Art in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in 1964. Flanagan graduated in 1966 and went on to teach at St. Martin's School of Art and the Central School of Arts and Crafts (1967–1971). Flanagan represented Britain at the Venice Biennale
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...

 in 1982. A major retrospective of his work was held at the Fundación 'La Caixa' Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

 in 1993, touring to the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes
The Fine arts Museum of Nantes is an art museum in Nantes, France.The museum was created in 1801 with the purchase of the Cacault collection and was located in is actual Palais des Beaux-Arts since 1900....

 in 1994.

Flanagan died on August 31, 2009 of motor neurone disease
Motor neurone disease
The motor neurone diseases are a group of neurological disorders that selectively affect motor neurones, the cells that control voluntary muscle activity including speaking, walking, breathing, swallowing and general movement of the body. They are generally progressive in nature, and can cause...

.

Works

Flanagan's bronze hares have also been exhibited in many outdoor spaces, most notably on Park Avenue
Park Avenue (Manhattan)
Park Avenue is a wide boulevard that carries north and southbound traffic in New York City borough of Manhattan. Through most of its length, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenue to the east....

 in New York in 1995–96 and in Chicago's Grant Park
Grant Park (Chicago)
Grant Park, with between the downtown Chicago Loop and Lake Michigan, offers many different attractions in its large open space. The park is generally flat. It is also crossed by large boulevards and even a bed of sunken railroad tracks...

 in 1996. In 1999, he had a solo exhibition at Xavier Hufkens
Xavier Hufkens
Xavier Hufkens is a European gallery owner and dealer in contemporary art. Since its founding in 1987, his gallery has been committed to the long term representation of established, mid-career and emerging artists. The gallery deals in a combination of painting, drawing, sculpture, photography,...

 in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

 followed by an exhibition at the Tate Gallery
Tate Gallery
The Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...

, Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

 (2000). In 2002, a major exhibition of his work was shown at the Kunsthalle Recklinghausen
Recklinghausen
Recklinghausen is the northernmost city in the Ruhr-Area and the capital of the Recklinghausen district. It borders the rural Münsterland and is characterized by large fields and farms in the north and industry in the south...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, and toured to the Musee d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain, Nice, France.

The Barry Flanagan statue "Thinker on a Rock
Thinker on a Rock
Thinker on a Rock is a bronze sculpture by Barry Flanagan.It is installed at Washington University in St. Louis, the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park in Des Moines, Iowa, Utrecht, and the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden....

" is currently on loan to Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations...

. Affectionately known to students as "the bunny" the piece is featured prominently in a central location near Olin Library on the Washington University Danforth Campus
Danforth Campus
The Danforth Campus is the main campus at Washington University in St. Louis. Formerly known as the Hilltop Campus, it was officially dedicated as the Danforth Campus on September 17, 2006, in honor of William H. Danforth, the 13th Chancellor of the University, the Danforth family and the Danforth...

. Another "Thinker on a Rock" is also located in Washington, D.C. in the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden
National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden
The National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden is the most recent addition to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Completed and opened to the public on May 23, 1999, the location provides an outdoor setting for exhibiting a number of pieces from the Museum's contemporary sculpture...

. This statue marries Flanagan's ever-present hare
Hare
Hares and jackrabbits are leporids belonging to the genus Lepus. Hares less than one year old are called leverets. Four species commonly known as types of hare are classified outside of Lepus: the hispid hare , and three species known as red rock hares .Hares are very fast-moving...

 motif found in many of his bronzes (in the 1980s, he "perceived the image of a hare unveiling itself" before him and has used it since) with a pose from Rodin
Rodin
- People :* Auguste Rodin , French sculptor, for whom is named:** The Musée Rodin in Paris, France** The Rodin Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA** The Rodin Gallery in Seoul, South Korea** Rodin , a crater on the Moon...

's The Thinker
The Thinker
The Thinker is a bronze and marble sculpture by Auguste Rodin, whose first cast, of 1902, is now in the Musée Rodin in Paris; there are some twenty other original castings as well as various other versions, studies, and posthumous castings. It depicts a man in sober meditation battling with a...

(1880). There is also one on Neude square in Utrecht
Utrecht
Utrecht is a city in the Netherlands.The name may also refer to:* Utrecht , of which Utrecht is the capital* Utrecht , including the city of Utrecht* Bishopric of Utrecht* Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Utrecht...

, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

.

Flanagan's hare statue "Large Left-Handed Drummer" was on display in Union Square (New York City)
Union Square (New York City)
Union Square is a public square in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York.It is an important and historic intersection, located where Broadway and the former Bowery Road – now Fourth Avenue – came together in the early 19th century; its name celebrates neither the...

park through June 24, 2007.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK