Dialectical Materialism: Aspects of British Sculpture Since the 1960s charts a network of relations linking the work of six sculptors: Anthony Caro, Barry Flanagan, Richard Long, William Turnbull, Rachel Whiteread and Alison Wilding.

Since the 1960s, successive artists and art-critical frameworks have sought to undermine or dispense with traditional media and the boundaries between painting and sculpture, the core disciplines of modern Western art. The artists studied here are united by their commitment to sculpture as a distinct practice, but also to broadening, challenging and redefining the basis of that practice.

In his essay, art historian Jonathan Vernon argues that each of these sculptors has engaged in a realignment of sculptural and material space - in removing sculpture from the disembodied, 'disinterested' spaces of mid-century modernism and returning it to a shared world inhabited by other objects, ourselves and our material interests. From the conflicts that inhere in this space, we may discern the outlines of a new idea of British sculpture since the 1960s - an idea by turns narrative, dramatic and dysfunctional.

About the Author

Dr Jonathan Vernon is an Associate Lecturer at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London and a specialist on Constantin Brancusi and Cold War-era interpretations of twentieth-century modernism. He was previously a Fellow at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and Contributing Editor at The Burlington Magazine.

Dr Jon Wood is an art historian and curator specialising in modern and contemporary sculpture, and a trustee of the Gabo Trust for Sculpture Conservation. He worked for 20 years at the Henry Moore Institute, running its research programme and organising exhibitions.

Tom Rowland is Managing Director of Karsten Schubert London.

Book Information
ISBN 9781909932548
Author Jonathan Vernon
Format Paperback
Page Count 56
Imprint Ridinghouse
Publisher Ridinghouse