Nigel Hall (sculptor)
Encyclopedia
Nigel Hall is an English
sculptor
and a draughtsman
.
He studied at the West of England College of Art, Bristol from 1960 – 1964 and at the Royal College of Art
, London from 1964 to 1967. A Harkness Fellowship
took him to United States, to Canada and Mexico from 1967 – 1969. Only later, back in London, he travelled to Japan, Korea and Switzerland.
From 1971 to 1981 Nigel Hall was a lecturer and external examiner of the Royal College of Art, London and ran the MA sculpture course at Chelsea College of Art and Design
.
Nigel Hall lives and works in London.
He was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 2003.
and Swiss Alps spaces of silence and vastness. This influences his drawings and he keeps a diary of sketches on his frequent travels.
His drawings represent more than half of his total work.
His location-based installation art
is internationally known. A two-part wall relief in painted and gilded wood at the entrance of Providence Tower, Dallas (1989), a wall sculpture at the entrance to the Australian National Gallery, Canberra (1982), and his largest sculpture, a free-standing steel work at the entrance to the Thameslink
tunnel, London, 1993.
Nigel Hall's sculpture names Soda Lake was featured in Richard Alston's dance as the physical set for the piece. The dance piece was named after the sculpture. The sculpture was inspired by Soda Lake which can be found in the Mojave desert. One part of the sculture is a thin metal pole which stretched up at an angle and has a large elliptical loop attached at its apex. The second part is a thicker pole which is hung diametrically opposite the point at which the loop is attached to the thin pole, and is suspended so that it does not quite reach the ground. This is in two parts, the top section being marginally fatter than the lower. The upper end of the pole is slightly pointed whilst its lower end is bluntly rounded. The sculpture is made of fiberglass and aluminum and is painted gloss black. Hall used the concept of silence found at the landscape of Soda Lake and translated it into his sculpture through hanging one of the poles above the ground slightly.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
sculptor
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
and a draughtsman
Drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...
.
Life
Nigel Hall's grandfather was a stonemason working on churches and cathedrals. Nigel was able to observe this work and the carving of stone was to influence his sculptures and drawings.He studied at the West of England College of Art, Bristol from 1960 – 1964 and at the Royal College of Art
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...
, London from 1964 to 1967. A Harkness Fellowship
Harkness Fellowship
The Harkness Fellowships are a programme run by the Commonwealth Fund of New York City. They were established to reciprocate the Rhodes Scholarships and enable Fellows from several countries to spend time studying in the United States...
took him to United States, to Canada and Mexico from 1967 – 1969. Only later, back in London, he travelled to Japan, Korea and Switzerland.
From 1971 to 1981 Nigel Hall was a lecturer and external examiner of the Royal College of Art, London and ran the MA sculpture course at Chelsea College of Art and Design
Chelsea College of Art and Design
Chelsea College of Art and Design, the erstwhile Chelsea School of Art, is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, and is a leading British art and design institution with an international reputation...
.
Nigel Hall lives and works in London.
He was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 2003.
Works
Nigel Hall has always created single and multi-colored drawings. Since the 1960s he has also worked on sculptures and spatial structures. The interplay of shadows and balance in the works mean that their placement, whether indoors or outside, is important. Hall finds the landscape of the Mojave DesertMojave Desert
The Mojave Desert occupies a significant portion of southeastern California and smaller parts of central California, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona, in the United States...
and Swiss Alps spaces of silence and vastness. This influences his drawings and he keeps a diary of sketches on his frequent travels.
His drawings represent more than half of his total work.
His location-based installation art
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
is internationally known. A two-part wall relief in painted and gilded wood at the entrance of Providence Tower, Dallas (1989), a wall sculpture at the entrance to the Australian National Gallery, Canberra (1982), and his largest sculpture, a free-standing steel work at the entrance to the Thameslink
Thameslink
Thameslink is a fifty-station main-line route in the British railway system running north to south through London from Bedford to Brighton, serving both London Gatwick Airport and London Luton Airport. It opened as a through service in 1988 and by 1998 was severely overcrowded, carrying more than...
tunnel, London, 1993.
Selected exhibitions
- Solo exhibitions: 1967: Galerie Givaudan, Paris, France, - 1982: Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany, - 1995: Veranneman Foundation, Kruishoutem, Belgium, - 1998: New York Studio School Gallery, New York, USA, - 2001: Foundation Sculpture at Schoenthal, Langenbruck, Switzerland, - 2004: Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany, - 2008: Park Ryu Sook Gallery, Seoul, South Korea, - 2008 Nigel Hall: Sculpture and Drawing 1965-2008 - Yorkshire Sculpture ParkYorkshire Sculpture ParkThe Yorkshire Sculpture Park in West Bretton, Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, England is an open-air gallery showing work by UK and international artists, including Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth...
, Wakefield, West Yorkshire - Group exhibitions: 1975: Biennale de ParisBiennale de Paris-History:The 'Biennale de Paris' was launched by Raymond Cogniat in 1959 and set up by André Malraux as he was Minister of Culture to present an overview of young creativity worldwide and to create a place of experiences and meetings.-Presentation:...
, Paris, France, - 1977: documentaDocumentadocumenta is an exhibition of modern and contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. It was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau which took place in Kassel at that time...
6, Kassel, Germany, - 2002/03: Peggy Guggenheim CollectionPeggy Guggenheim CollectionThe Peggy Guggenheim Collection is an art museum on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy. It is one of several museums of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation....
, Venice, Italy, - 2001, 2003, 2005: “Blickachsen”, Bad Homburg vor der Höhe, Germany, 2006: Museum of Fine Arts, Ostend, Belgium - Public collections: Tate Gallery, London, - Musee National d’Art Moderne, Paris, France, - Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany, - Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Japan, - National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan, - Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia, - Dallas Museum of Fine Art, Texas, USA, - Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel
Nigel Hall's sculpture names Soda Lake was featured in Richard Alston's dance as the physical set for the piece. The dance piece was named after the sculpture. The sculpture was inspired by Soda Lake which can be found in the Mojave desert. One part of the sculture is a thin metal pole which stretched up at an angle and has a large elliptical loop attached at its apex. The second part is a thicker pole which is hung diametrically opposite the point at which the loop is attached to the thin pole, and is suspended so that it does not quite reach the ground. This is in two parts, the top section being marginally fatter than the lower. The upper end of the pole is slightly pointed whilst its lower end is bluntly rounded. The sculpture is made of fiberglass and aluminum and is painted gloss black. Hall used the concept of silence found at the landscape of Soda Lake and translated it into his sculpture through hanging one of the poles above the ground slightly.
Selected sculpture parks
- Yorkshire Sculpture ParkYorkshire Sculpture ParkThe Yorkshire Sculpture Park in West Bretton, Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, England is an open-air gallery showing work by UK and international artists, including Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth...
, Wakefield, West Yorkshire - Cass Sculpture at Goodwood
- Foundation Sculpture at SchoenthalSculpture at SchoenthalSculpture at Schoenthal is an art foundation in Switzerland. It is named after the Schönthal Monastery, a former church near the village of Langenbruck, Basel-Landschaft, which is now used for temporary art exhibitions...
, Langenbruck, Switzerland
Selected literature
- Nigel Hall: Sculpture and Drawings, exh, cat., Annely Juda Fine Art, London, 1978
- Nigel Hall: Skulpturen und Zeichnungen, exh. cat., Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany, 1982
- Nigel Hall: Hidden Valleys, exh. cat., Kunsthalle Mannheim, Germany, 2004
- Nigel Hall: Other Voices, Other Rooms, exh. Cat., Galerie Scheffel, Bad Homburg vor der Höhe, Germany, 2007
- Andrew Lambirth: Nigel Hall - Sculpture and Works on Paper. Royal Academy Books, London, 2008. ISBN 1905711301 - (The text is drawn from transcriptions of interviews with the artist recorded by Andrew Lambirth for the "Artist's Lives" project for the "National Life Stories". ©The British Library)
- Nigel Hall: Chinese Whispers, exh. cat., Galerie Andresthalmann, Zürich, 2010