Indiana playtime

I was fascinated by the way the light and shade played out on Robert Indiana's brightly painted aluminium sculptures at YSP. I found myself drawn to making abstract photos and then I've processed them in different ways, even sometimes changing the colour balance. The square arrangement above started off as images taken from his Red, Blue, Green LOVE sculpture. The other three are abstracts from the One through Zero (The Ten Numbers) sequence. Wonderfully vibrant, aren't they? 

 

Robert Indiana

Robert Indiana (1928-2018) was an American artist associated with the pop art movement. There is a selection of his paintings and sculptures on show at present at YSP, tracing the development of his career across six decades of social and political change. Much of his work considered human rights issues and social justice, using letters, numbers and bright colour. His iconic work is 'LOVE'.  A version is perched on the hillside at YSP (see my last photo), and variations are also on display, like 'AMOR' above. The works are playful and arresting. Though not entirely my 'cup of tea' as art, nevertheless I enjoyed working out ways of photographing them, both as whole works and in abstraction. 

'Black Mound'

Here's another of the artworks that I enjoyed at Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP).  It is 'Black Mound' by David Nash, created in situ in 2013. It is made from coal and oak, charred black by carefully controlled burning.  The artist said of it:  'With wood sculpture one tends to see ‘wood’, a warm familiar material, before reading the form: wood first, form second. Charring radically changes this experience. The surface is transformed from a vegetable to a mineral – carbon – and one sees the form before the material.'

The more I looked, studied and photographed it, the more I appreciated it - the subtle black on black tones and textures, the relationship between the stumps and the spaces between and the way nature was encroaching and redefining the piece, slowly reclaiming it as her own. The bright yellow dandelion, a common weed, was showcased, becoming part of the sculpture, like a spark among the ashes. 

And just because I like playing, here's an abstract composition based on the image above:

Two Large Forms

This is one of my favourite Henry Moore sculptures, simply entitled Two Large Forms. (His titles were never the most imaginative!) A huge bronze, one of four casts of the 1969 sculpture, it sits in the Country Park at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP), with sheep grazing around it. I love the patina it has developed over the years and I love the way it changes depending on the light and on where you stand in relation to it. Moore said he was influenced by the local landscape. (He was born in nearby Castleford). It is tempting to ascribe recognisable subjects to its simple but sensuous shapes and lines. Male and female? Bones and vertebrae? Who knows... but I defy anyone to look at them and not be drawn into exploring them visually and responding to them in some way. The two forms twine around each other, never quite touching. 

My own response this time was to home in on some of the sweeping lines and to enjoy the colouration of the piece, which has recently been returned to its beautiful outdoor setting after undergoing conservation work. 

I didn't take a photo of the work in its entirety this time so here's a picture I took in 2014, under different lighting conditions:

Where sheep may safely graze

One of the odd little 'positives' from the Covid pandemic is the sense of joyful return to some of the places that I love but could not visit during the lockdowns. The 'forbidden fruit' effect means an increased appreciation of the freedom and the abundance of loveliness amongst which I'm fortunate to live. It was with that in mind that a friend and I had a delightful day out at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) near Wakefield. 

A 500 acre country estate, formerly belonging to Bretton Hall, it has a large 1720 mansion that later became a teacher training college. There are rolling fields, lakes and woodland - miles of countryside to explore - as well as galleries and gardens, all full of sculpture and art. Pretty much all that you see in the photo below is part of it, although the Longside Gallery, which you can just see on the hillside in the distance, is currently closed. 

The various sculptures, some permanent and some visiting, somehow fit perfectly into the landscape. The sheep in the top photo are oblivious to the Corten steel 'Crate of Air' by Sean Scully, and others graze safely near Henry Moore's 'Large Totem Head'. The swan on her nest in the reeds (above) didn't know she was reflected in 'Gazing Ball' by Lucy & George Orta (also below), originally commissioned for an exhibition in the water gardens at Studley Royal. 

As you wander the estate, you might not even realise that the steps up through the bluebells are an artwork by David Nash: 'Seventy-One Steps', charred and oiled oak embedded in coal. Or that the bridge over the haha (hidden ditch) is a clever and functional sculpture by Brian Fell. 

Then there are the galleries to explore, architectural masterpieces in themselves. I love the play of light and shadow in the Underground Gallery. 

The more formal garden areas are lovely too, and I was thrilled to see the wisteria blossom tumbling down the wall outside the Underground Gallery.

There's more to see than can be done in a day, so I am glad to live within an hour's drive and to keep returning to the YSP.