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Lot Essay
Barry Flanagan's Leaping Hare on Curly Bell is one of the artist's celebrated works, part of a remarkable career that saw him move through a range of styles, from the post-minimal sculpture that he focused on in the 1960s, moving toward the figurative style we see here. With a burst of joyous energy, Flanagan's iconic hare leaps through the air, balanced elegantly on the lip of a curled open bell. Playfulness and immediacy are given striking sculptural form, inviting the viewer to join the artist in his celebration of nature, life and happiness.
Executed in bronze, Leaping Hare on Curly Bell is a sophisticated composition that merges slender elongated shapes with the elegant curved form and vital, exuberant energy of the hare. Flanagan was a highly influential sculptor for nearly five decades from the late 1960s onwards. Achieving an exceptional degree of material skill, confidence and eloquence in his artistic language, the artist here allows his creative spirit to run free, and adds a welcome and wonderful sense of humour and whimsicality to the medium of bronze figurative sculpture, a traditional medium with great historical associations.
The iconic simplicity of the hare echoes prehistoric bronze figurines, with their mysticism and appeal to magic powers believed to be contained within the image of the figure. But the form of the hare has personal associations for the artist, as well. Flanagan began creating sculptures of hares in the late 1970s, in part because of a memory he recalled vividly of seeing a hare running across the Sussex Downs. Through his sculptures he communicates that memory, conveying the animal's boundless energy, fluidity and humour. Always active, suggesting speed, lightness and grace whilst at the same time filled with good humour, the leaping hare has become a leitmotiv of Flanagan's work. Whether 19 or 90 inches high, increasingly anthropomorphic, they wrestle, box and dance. Here, Flanagan contrasts the supple lines of the animal in motion with the stillness and stolidity of a bell base. The hare sculptures are one set of a larger body of sculptures based on animal forms that Flanagan created over his career. All of these works, and in particular the hare sculptures, expressed his interest in merging the commonplace, the imaginary and the fantastic, and drew from the ancient, mythic, archetypal meanings the various animal forms have held for human beings. Flanagan became fascinated with how the medium of bronze has been used to model animal figures, to convey their physicality, to be sure, but also their aura. He studied ancient bronze sculptures of animals, and was inspired both by the technical skill their sculptors possessed, but also how these works expressed man's eternal fascination with animals.
Flanagan's hares made one of their first public appearances when he represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in 1982 and subsequently exhibited at the Whitechapel Gallery in London. The Biennale exhibition included, amongst others, Hare and Bell; Leaping Hare; and Cricketer, all conceived in 1981. When asked why the hare held such appeal, he said, ‘I find that the hare is a rich and expressive form that can carry the conventions of the cartoon and the attributes of the human into the animal world. So I use the hare as a vehicle to entertain abstract from the human figure, choosing the hare to behave as a human occasionally.’ (B. Flanagan, quoted in E. Juncosa, Barry Flanagan Sculpture 1965-2005, Dublin, 2006, p. 65).
Leaping Hare on Curly Bell demonstrates why Flanagan was praised not only by critics and fellow artists, but also why he became a true people's artist. He created numerous and much beloved public sculptures that have been collected and exhibited all over the world, and his works are in the holdings of dozens of museums and corporate collections as well.
Executed in bronze, Leaping Hare on Curly Bell is a sophisticated composition that merges slender elongated shapes with the elegant curved form and vital, exuberant energy of the hare. Flanagan was a highly influential sculptor for nearly five decades from the late 1960s onwards. Achieving an exceptional degree of material skill, confidence and eloquence in his artistic language, the artist here allows his creative spirit to run free, and adds a welcome and wonderful sense of humour and whimsicality to the medium of bronze figurative sculpture, a traditional medium with great historical associations.
The iconic simplicity of the hare echoes prehistoric bronze figurines, with their mysticism and appeal to magic powers believed to be contained within the image of the figure. But the form of the hare has personal associations for the artist, as well. Flanagan began creating sculptures of hares in the late 1970s, in part because of a memory he recalled vividly of seeing a hare running across the Sussex Downs. Through his sculptures he communicates that memory, conveying the animal's boundless energy, fluidity and humour. Always active, suggesting speed, lightness and grace whilst at the same time filled with good humour, the leaping hare has become a leitmotiv of Flanagan's work. Whether 19 or 90 inches high, increasingly anthropomorphic, they wrestle, box and dance. Here, Flanagan contrasts the supple lines of the animal in motion with the stillness and stolidity of a bell base. The hare sculptures are one set of a larger body of sculptures based on animal forms that Flanagan created over his career. All of these works, and in particular the hare sculptures, expressed his interest in merging the commonplace, the imaginary and the fantastic, and drew from the ancient, mythic, archetypal meanings the various animal forms have held for human beings. Flanagan became fascinated with how the medium of bronze has been used to model animal figures, to convey their physicality, to be sure, but also their aura. He studied ancient bronze sculptures of animals, and was inspired both by the technical skill their sculptors possessed, but also how these works expressed man's eternal fascination with animals.
Flanagan's hares made one of their first public appearances when he represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in 1982 and subsequently exhibited at the Whitechapel Gallery in London. The Biennale exhibition included, amongst others, Hare and Bell; Leaping Hare; and Cricketer, all conceived in 1981. When asked why the hare held such appeal, he said, ‘I find that the hare is a rich and expressive form that can carry the conventions of the cartoon and the attributes of the human into the animal world. So I use the hare as a vehicle to entertain abstract from the human figure, choosing the hare to behave as a human occasionally.’ (B. Flanagan, quoted in E. Juncosa, Barry Flanagan Sculpture 1965-2005, Dublin, 2006, p. 65).
Leaping Hare on Curly Bell demonstrates why Flanagan was praised not only by critics and fellow artists, but also why he became a true people's artist. He created numerous and much beloved public sculptures that have been collected and exhibited all over the world, and his works are in the holdings of dozens of museums and corporate collections as well.