Barry Flanagan: Sculpture

Paul Kasmin Gallery is pleased to announce our exhibition of sculptures by Barry Flanagan from February 23 - March 31, 2007. 

This exhibition will present Flanagan’s bronze sculptures spanning twenty years, from the monumental to intimate in scale.  The most prominent subject in his menagerie of animals, the hare sculptures are instantly the most recognizable.  Flanagan sees the hare as a particularly suitable vehicle for human endeavors and emotions.  The work in the exhibition uses the expressive and wiry body of the animal leaping over a Duchampian stool and wheel, stacked pyramids and other witty juxtapositions.

Among the philosophical sources of Flanagan's hares is the literary work of Alfred Jarry. Jarry was associated with Dadaism and Surrealism and established himself as one of the surest enemies of antiquated academicism, through iconoclastic humour which demolished logic and morality.  Many of Flanagan's hares possess human attributes however do not project any specific politics or morality. 

There have been major retrospectives of his work most recently organized at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Ireland in 2006, the Kunstausstellung der Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen, Germany and traveling to the Musee d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain, Nice in 2002 and the Fundacion La Caixa Madrid in 1993, touring to the Musee des Beaux-Arts, Nantes in 1994. His work is in numerous public collections, including the Stedelijk Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, Kunsthaus (Zurich), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Nagoya Museum, and the Tate Gallery.  Flanagan's bronze hares have also been exhibited in many outdoor spaces, most notably on Park Avenue in New York in 1995-6 and at Grant Park, Chicago in 1996.

A new monumental sculpture, “Large Left-Handed Drummer”,  2006, will be on view at the South East corner of Union Square from February 18 – June 24, 2007 in coordination with the City of New York/ Parks & Recreation.