Sculpture Victorious at Tate Britain

Part of the Oswaldo 'takeaway'

Lots of great stuff as usual at Tate Britain, new things for me include audio sculpture near main entrance called 'Something going on above my head', it was certainly different and is by the artist Oswaldo Maciá who comes from Colombo and is concerned with the 'Ambiguity of Language' amongst other things .





Tate Britain  has also got  exciting new display items to 'see', a couple that caught my eye were  the conceptual piece by John Hillard of a  'Camera recording it's own condition '  and the enigmatic Sow Farm (near Libbey ) by John Gerrard.

Joseph Wright - bewitching

It was nice to see a feature-ette on the often overlooked enlightenment painter Joseph Wright of Derby too.

A nice little guide

Last visit I was unable to drag my weary limbs around Sculpture Victorious  but this time it was at the start of my trip I went in  and I really consider that it was worth seeing.

The exhibition made me re-evaluate the use of 'Victorian' as a derogatory comment very pleased to see that Hamo Thornycroft  whose 'A Sower' recently delighted me in Kew Gardens was a leading light in Sculpture  at the time Queen Victoria was reigning.

What I particularity liked about this exhibition was the quirkiness and inventiveness of the times things like a  system for making miniature copies of sculptures (Cheverton was the inventor).

But there were social commentaries too like John Bell's American Slave a clear and ringing answer to  the American Hiram Power's  sculpture of The Greek Slave


There was also an important female voice of the time in Mary Seton -Watts who was more than jsut an adjunct to G F Watts.

A very old film showed the mood when public sculptures were unveiled - it was a time of high drama with spirits running high the  Police were sometimes needed to quell the excitement of the masses .

My personal favourite of the exhibition was  A Royal Game by William Reynolds-Stephens, a sculpture depicting Queen Elizabeth playing chess against  King Philip of Spain - very inventive, using modern materials in a creative way

'A Sower' by Hamo Thornycroft