Phyllida Barlow
Untitled
- Medium
- Cement, plaster, scrim, spray paint and paint over polystyrene core
- Dimensions
- 20 x 28 x 25 cm
Joseph Clark Collection · JCC-0052
About the work
A polystyrene core lies beneath layers of cement, plaster, scrim and paint. The difference between this lightweight interior and the worked exterior complicates the sculpture’s apparent solidity. Barlow’s small untitled object brings together concerns that recur at much larger scales in her practice: construction, weight, surface and the gap between what a form appears to be and how it is made.
About the artist
Phyllida Barlow (1944–2023) was a British artist whose sculptures and installations challenged expectations of weight, balance and monumentality. She worked with inexpensive materials including cardboard, plywood, fabric, polystyrene, plaster and cement, often leaving joints and construction marks visible beneath vivid or industrial colours.
Her forms can appear precarious, obstructive or unexpectedly playful. Rather than presenting sculpture as a self-contained object viewed from a distance, she changed how people moved through a room. Structures could crowd, block or bridge the surrounding space, making the visitor’s body and viewpoint part of the encounter.
Major projects included dock for Tate Britain’s Duveen Galleries in 2014, folly in the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2017, and cul-de-sac at the Royal Academy in 2019. Drawing remained a substantial strand of her practice, recognised in the 2014 exhibition Fifty Years of Drawings. The works on paper extend her interest in invented forms and spatial relationships, while retaining the immediacy and independence of drawing.