BARRY FLANNAGAN

The first monograph to be published on the work of Barry Flanagan (1941-2009), one of Britain's preeminent sculptors which includes over 200 colour reproductions and a newly compiled chronology. This splendid heavyweight tome charts his life and work to his first exhibition in London at the Rowan gallery in 1966, and his last sculptures made in Ibiza in 2009. Flanagan graduated from St Martin's School of Art where he had established a reputation as a leading figure of the avant-garde, as a writer of concrete poetry, and as a pataphysician, espousing Alfred Jarry's science of imaginary solutions. He received international critical acclaim for his intuitive and inventive approach to his materials which aligned him with new art practices and the emergent art movements of Arte Povera, Land Art and Process Art. From 1972, reassessing the function of public sculpture, Flanagan began to explore more traditional materials working with stone and bronze for which he is now best known. His characterful Hares are found displayed in numerous public spaces; he was drawn to the animal for its anthropomorphic potential and rich cultural iconography. Flanagan was born in Prestatyn in 1941 to a family of music hall performers and was himself an accomplished dancer and a keen cellist. The lyrical, structural and spatial qualities of music remained a constant influence on his preoccupations which infused his creative approach and poetry and architecture were also fundamental to his practice of three dimensional art. He lived in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Dublin and Ibiza as well as New York where he took a suite at the Chelsea Hotel and described himself as 'an itinerant sculptor'. In 1991 he was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts and was awarded the OBE. Here are his hares moving through the landscape, leaping, darting and in the mating season on its hind legs, boxing. As a nocturnal creature it is often associated with the Moon, creativity and fertility and by some religions regarded diabolical, a sign of primeval magic. On page 11 is an absolutely glorious leaping hare. It is the first of two tipped-in illustrations, a rare technique in book form these days, followed by literally hundreds of colour and black and white examples, mostly full page from his magnificent sculptures such as in Grant Park Chicago, a dog in bronze photographed in close up, an elephant with a hare balanced on its head, smooth polished tumbling stones, a magnificent horse and several human nudes (accompanied by the hare) to acrobatic hares, bookend hares and a cellist hare sitting thoughtfully on its plinth. 150 colour reproductions, 288 huge pages. 11¼ x 16".
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