Gagosian is pleased to participate in Frieze Masters 2021 with Material Process. Conceived, carved, cast, or constructed—sculpture remained a continuously strong tradition throughout the twentieth century in Britain. Artists such as Henry Moore, Anthony Caro, Michael Craig-Martin, Rachel Whiteread, Damien Hirst, and Douglas Gordon have extended this lineage, often focusing on human figures or body parts, transforming materials and techniques, including language, into a widely diverse practice that is internationally recognized.
Henry Moore pushed the historic materials of bronze and stone to new levels of innovation as he explored the bond between body and nature in his undulating figurative forms. Anthony Caro created his own sculptural language in response to Moore, experimenting with the effects of modeling and the sensations of the body from within, and later moving into constructed and collaged works. Realism and abstraction are reimagined in works that have subtle relationships with each other, and with the viewer. Both Moore and Caro used drawing to further their sculptural oeuvres and develop their own notions of space, movement, and volume. While Moore represented natural forms of shells, rocks, bones, and bark, Caro’s drawings echoed his own works in three dimensions, which inscribe the air with curves of steel, like pencil to paper.
Damien Hirst harnesses the liquid substance of formaldehyde in his sculpture to preserve the remains of animal carcasses. For Hirst, formaldehyde conjures associations with memory and humankind’s futile efforts to avoid the certainty of death. Rachel Whiteread’s casts of the spaces within domestic objects similarly give solid form to the soft edges of memory as she makes tangible the very absence of material. Within this uncertain space between presence and absence, Douglas Gordon’s text-based works toy with the resonance of language to foster a dialogue between artist and viewer. The concept of transformation between negative and positive equally resonates with Michael Craig-Martin’s momentous work An Oak Tree (1973). Evoking the belief in transubstantiation and the metamorphosis of materials, Craig-Martin invites faith in the notion that a simple glass of water may actually be an oak tree.
Through the work of these British artists, sculptural languages of experimentation come into focus, defined by a preoccupation with the materials and processes of art making.
To receive a pdf with detailed information on the works, please contact the gallery at inquire@gagosian.com. To attend the fair, purchase tickets at frieze.com.