Category Archives: Sculpture

‘George’s machines’: museum devoted to George Wyllie opens on the Clyde

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The Wyllieum will showcase work of ‘social sculptor’ who used humour to make serious criticisms of climate crisis and capitalism

He was the artist who sailed a paper boat past New York, set a straw locomotive on fire over the Clyde, and inserted a question mark into the word sculpture.

George Wyllie, a prolific, self-taught “social sculptor” who worked with steel, stone, wood and paper, used humour to make deeply serious criticisms of the climate crisis, capitalism and Britain’s industrial decline.

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New York’s Vessel to reopen with steel-mesh safety measures after suicides

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Climbable sculpture in Hudson Yards in Manhattan closed in 2021 after four people died by suicide

The Vessel, the huge climbable centerpiece of New York’s upmarket Hudson Yards development that saw a number of suicides, is set to reopen later this year with new safety features, according to developers.

The 150ft sculpture, designed by Thomas Heatherwick and built at a cost of $260m, was closed three years ago after four people jumped to their deaths. Besides overall criticism of its design – including descriptions of it as a giant gold shish-kebab rotisserie – the construction was grimly described to the Guardian as “staircase to nowhere”.

In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

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Ukrainian sculptor who fled Kyiv accepted into Royal Society of British Artists

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Alex Lidagovsky was forced to leave Ukraine with his family when his studio was bombed during the Russian invasion

A Ukrainian sculptor who fled to the UK when his studio was destroyed has been accepted into the Royal Society of British Artists.

Alex Lidagovsky was forced to leave Kyiv with his wife, Dasha Nepochatova, and 16-year-old stepdaughter after the Russian invasion began on 24 February 2022.

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Long-buried Atlas statue raised to guard Temple of Zeus in Sicily once more

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Eight-metre statue dating from fifth century BC restored and assembled piece-by-piece to be displayed in Valley of the Temples

A colossal statue of Atlas that lay buried for centuries among ancient ruins has been reconstructed to take its rightful place among the Greek temples of Agrigento in Sicily, after a 20-year research and restoration project.

The statue, standing at 8 metres (26ft) tall and dating back to the fifth century BC, was one of nearly 38 that adorned the Temple of Zeus, considered the largest Doric temple ever built despite never being completed.

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‘Dust is everywhere’: rare glimpse of how Michelangelo’s David is kept clean

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Florence museum boss compares process to cleaning a bathroom as media are granted privileged access

Michelangelo’s David is recognised as one of the most sublime works in the history of sculpture, but according to the director of Florence’s Accademia Gallery, dusting it is much like cleaning a bathroom.

“You know when you clean a bathroom, you clean and clean and think you’ve done a great job but then you spot some dust and wonder ‘where did that come from?’,” Cecilie Hollberg said on Monday. “This is what it’s like. Dust is everywhere.”

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Sculpture of colonial officer’s ‘angry spirit’ returns to DRC as Dutch urge reckoning

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Carved wooden figure at Venice Biennale aims to spark debate about colonial blindspots in the art world

A statue depicting the angry spirit of a Belgian officer beheaded during a 1930s uprising in the Congo will go on display at the Dutch pavilion of this year’s Venice Biennale, seeking to spark a debate about colonial blindspots in the art world – and the Belgian pavilion next door.

The carved wooden figure of colonial administrator Maximilien Balot will not be physically present at the world’s largest art event: a screen will show a livestream from a gallery in Lusanga, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where the artefact will be on display for the six-month duration of the festival.

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Eiffel Tower crowned as world’s tallest matchstick building after record U-turn

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Guinness World Records initially said 7.2-metre structure made from more than 700,000 matches broke rules

A man has been awarded the Guinness world record for creating the tallest structure using matchsticks, after his Eiffel Tower replica was initially rejected.

Richard Plaud, from France, said he had been on an “emotional rollercoaster” this week, after spending 4,200 hours building his model from more than 706,000 matches and 23kg of glue. “For eight years, I’ve always thought that I was building the tallest matchstick structure,” he said.

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‘Pile of bricks’ artist Carl Andre dies at 88

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Famed and derided for his minimalist aesthetic, the artist’s career was overshadowed by suspicions about his role in the death of his wife Ana Mendieta

Carl Andre, the minimalist sculptor whose life’s work was overshadowed by accusations that he had murdered his third wife, has died aged 88.

The artist was a pioneer of minimalism, and famed for austere works such as 1966’s Equivalent VIII, an arrangement of 120 fire bricks on the gallery floor. But he was also notorious for being a suspect in the murder of Ana Mendieta, who fell from the couple’s apartment window after an argument in 1985. Despite being acquitted of second-degree murder in 1988, the accusations continued to follow Andre for the rest of his life, with supporters of Mendieta turning up to protest at his exhibitions.

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Greece would offer major treasures to UK for Parthenon marbles, minister says

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Culture minister Lina Mendoni pledges to ‘fill the void’ at British Museum should ancient sculptures be returned to Athens

Greece is prepared to part with some of its greatest treasures to “fill the void” at the British Museum if the Parthenon marbles were reunited in Athens, the country’s culture minister has said.

Speaking to the Guardian at the end of a momentous year for the campaign to retrieve the fifth-century BC masterpieces, Lina Mendoni promised that the London institution’s revered Greek galleries would never go empty.

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Sunak says retaining Parthenon marbles is matter of law as he denies ‘hissy fit’

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PM reaffirms stance after George Osborne suggests snub to Greek counterpart was result of ‘petulance’

Rishi Sunak has denied having a “hissy fit” over the Parthenon marbles row and has said they cannot be returned to Greece “as a matter of law”.

The prime minister this week accused his Greek counterpart of using a trip to London to “grandstand” over the issue of the ancient Greek sculptures.

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Sunak accuses Greek PM of ‘grandstanding’ over Parthenon marbles

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Prime minister escalates row with Athens counterpart in first public comments after cancelling their meeting

Rishi Sunak has intensified his diplomatic spat with his Greek counterpart, accusing Kyriakos Mitsotakis of using his recent trip to London to “grandstand” over the issue of the Parthenon sculptures.

The prime minister told MPs on Wednesday he had cancelled a planned meeting with Mitsotakis in London on Tuesday because the Greek prime minister had reneged on a promise not to use the trip as an opportunity to advocate for the sculptures’ return.

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V&A director says museum trustees ‘infantilised’ amid row over Parthenon marbles

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Tristram Hunt says trustees should be able to ‘make case’ for items to be retained or returned to countries of origin

Museum trustees should be able to “make the case” whether items in their collections should be retained or returned to their countries of origin, but instead were being “infantilised” and “hidebound” by legislation, Tristram Hunt, the director of the V&A, has said.

He was speaking as a diplomatic row between the UK and Greece over the future of the Parthenon marbles, held at the British Museum, blew up this week after Rishi Sunak abruptly cancelled a meeting with the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

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Greek PM bemoans lack of progress on return of Parthenon marbles

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Kyriakos Mitsotakis to raise issue of ‘reunification’ of sculptures when he meets Rishi Sunak this week

Talks over a possible return of the Parthenon marbles from the British Museum to Greece are not advancing quick enough, the Greek prime minister has said before his meeting with Rishi Sunak this week.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis likened the British Museum’s possession of the sculptures – also known as the Elgin marbles – to the Mona Lisa painting being cut in half, saying it was not a question of ownership but “reunification”.

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Ten metres high and 10 tonnes: Louise Bourgeois’ giant spider crawls into Sydney

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Titled Maman, the bronze, steel and marble arachnid will be the looming centrepiece of the Art Gallery of NSW’s major summer exhibition

Looming over the sandstone steps of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, a giant spider is redirecting foot traffic.

The giant spider, titled Maman, is one of the late French-American artist Louise Bourgeois’ most renowned – and most outsized – works, towering at almost 10m at its highest point and sprawling just as wide. When I visit on the final day of installation, it is cordoned off – though at regular intervals, visitors peer through the gaps to gawp at the spindly creation within. People take photos from various angles in an effort to bypass the fence; others, circumnavigating the sculpture, end up down back alleys trying to find their way back.

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A radical piece of cake: feminist sculptural installation restaged at Tate Britain

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Bobby Baker’s An Edible Family in a Mobile Home (1976) will be recreated – this time with a vegan option

When Bobby Baker’s sculptural work An Edible Family in a Mobile Home was installed nearly 50 years ago, art lovers were invited to not only touch her work but eat it. Now, the seminal work by the intersectional feminist is coming back – except this time, there’s going to be a vegan option.

From 8 November, Tate Britain will present a restaging of Baker’s radical installation.

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Sir Mark Jones put forward as interim director of British Museum

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Former head of V&A has suggested Parthenon marbles could be shared with Greece

A former head of the V&A Museum, who previously suggested the Parthenon marbles could be shared with Greece, has been put forward as the interim director of the British Museum.

Sir Mark Jones will replace Hartwig Fischer, who quit after it emerged thousands of objects had been stolen from the museum’s collection. A police investigation is under way regarding the reported thefts.

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Pistoletto sculpture destroyed in suspected arson attack in Naples

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Venus of the Rags, one of the contemporary Italian artist’s most famous works, was burnt to cinders

One of the most famous works by Italian contemporary artist Michelangelo Pistoletto, Venus of the Rags, has been burnt to cinders in a suspected arson attack in Naples.

The installation, in which a statue of the Roman goddess of love, beauty and fertility stands next to a vast pile of coloured, discarded clothes, was destroyed where it stood on display near the town hall in the southern Italian city.

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Boris Johnson recites Oompa-Loompas song in defence of Roald Dahl’s books

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Ex-PM criticises sensitivity edit of author’s works – and also rejects sending Parthenon marbles to Greece

Boris Johnson has criticised a publisher’s rewriting of some language in Roald Dahl’s stories by reciting a song by the Oompa-Loompas.

The former prime minister expressed his “irritation at wokeness and political correctness” after Puffin made extensive changes to the author’s work to remove language it deemed offensive.

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Rare Giacometti chandelier bought for £250 in London set to sell for £7m

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Piece acquired by English painter in antiques shop in 1960s has been confirmed as lost work by Italian sculptor

Sometimes a hunch pays off, and when the English painter John Craxton recognised a work of genius for sale in a London antiques shop, he made very much the right call.

Craxton parted with £250 for an unusual chandelier he suspected was by the great sculptor Alberto Giacometti. Now that chandelier, made in the late 1940s, may sell at Christie’s in a few weeks’ time for as much as £7m. Pieces by the revered Swiss artist are the most expensive sculptures to buy at auction, and his work regularly breaks saleroom records.

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Germany returns 21 Benin bronzes to Nigeria – amid frustration at Britain

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Artefacts looted in 19th century by UK soldiers and sold on, with many more still held by the British Museum

Twenty-one precious artefacts that were looted by British soldiers from the former west African kingdom of Benin 125 years ago have been handed over by Germany to Nigeria amid laughter, tears, and some audible frustration with the ongoing silence of the country that first stole them.

The objects from the haul of treasures known as the Benin bronzes, including a brass head of an oba (king), a ceremonial ada and a throne depicting a coiled-up python, were taken from the sacked city during a British punitive expedition in 1897 and later sold to German museums in Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Cologne.

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