Kasmin Sculpture Garden presents an exhibition of three large-scale bronze sculptures by Welsh sculptor Barry Flanagan (1941–2009). Representing significant examples of the artist’s later work featuring his signature motif of the hare, the works are situated on the roof of the gallery’s 509 West 27th Street space and on view from The High Line at 28th Street. As New York City parks remain temporarily closed, the exhibition can be enjoyed remotely via the gallery’s digital channels until normal opening hours resume.
In the late 1970s, Flanagan began to distill his decades-long fascination with ontology, movement, and materiality into the figure of the hare. He was fascinated by the animal’s anthropomorphic potential—its ability to magnify a range of expressive attributes and to convey meaning and feeling beyond what he felt was possible in the manifestation of human form. The artist’s immersion in the country pursuits of gamekeeping and poaching, as well as the publication of George Ewart Evans’ ‘The Leaping Hare’ in 1972, cemented the artist’s engagement with the animal’s mythological and Pataphysical iconography. After witnessing the animal dash across the Sussex Downs, Flanagan was struck by its mysterious, acrobatic, unpredictable movements as set against the backdrop of an untamed wilderness.
The exhibition continues Kasmin’s ongoing commitment to bringing Flanagan’s work to the public in New York, beginning with the installation of Large Left-Handed Drummer in Union Square (2007) and a solo presentation of the artist’s bronze hares at ADAA: The Art Show held in the Park Avenue Armory (2009). Examples of Flanagan’s iconic hare works are included in important public collections such as Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv Yafo, Israel; and Tate, London, United Kingdom.
