The newly launched Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield has announced its first contemporary art acquisition. The sculpture was purchased through the Contemporary Art Society’s Acquisitions Scheme with the support of the Art Fund. The work titled Wandering Palm, 2011 by Eva Rothschild, is the first work to be acquired for the Wakefield Council’s permanent art collection since it opened in May 2011.
Wandering Palm was one of a number of new works created by the artist for the inaugural exhibition, Hot Touch, at The Hepworth Wakefield. The explicit use of casting processes behind Eva Rothschild’s Wandering Palm, which assembles cast component parts of familiar everyday objects, has a resonance with the existing permanent collection and in particular Barbara Hepworth’s own hand-worked plasters from the Hepworth Family Gift.
Simon Wallis, Director said: “This is a really exciting moment for The Hepworth Wakefield. Thanks to the support of Contemporary Art Society and the Art Fund we now have this wonderful work by Eva Rothschild, one of the country’s most significant contemporary sculptors, in Wakefield’s permanent art collection.”
He continued: “New acquisitions by contemporary artists combined with a regularly changing and ambitious exhibition programme of historic, modern and contemporary art continue the progressive artistic legacy of the Wakefield Art Gallery founders. The collection is featured in our displays, with works by Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Jacob Epstein, Graham Sutherland, John Piper, and Paul Nash.”
Eva Rothschild (born 1971, Dublin) is one of the foremost contemporary sculptors working in the UK today. Her sculptures have attracted international attention in their deployment of a varied lexicon of forms and materials. Following its successful opening at The Hepworth Wakefield, Hot Touch is now on display at Kunstverein Hannover in Germany, 19 November 2011 — 29 January 2012.
Clare Woods: The Unquiet Head is the new contemporary exhibition, on display at The Hepworth Wakefield until 29 January 2012. New large-scale paintings by the British painter have been inspired by the Yorkshire landscape, and in particular the natural formations at Brimham Rocks and Ilkley Moor. A display of work by Paul Nash, John Piper and Graham Sutherland from The Wakefield Permanent Art Collection and British Council Collection is also on display.
Photo: Eva Rothschild, Sunrise, Wandering Palm, Tombstone, all 2011.
Courtesy the artist and The Hepworth Wakefield. Photo: ©Jerry Hardman-Jones