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Inflatable clowns and art in the post: welcome to the future of sculpture
Portable Sculpture, a new show in Leeds, offers a zany hint as to art’s direction. Its leading young lights explain what they’re thinking
19 May 2021 • 12:16pm
Portable Sculpture, at Leeds s Henry Moore Institute, contains a wide range of works old and new
Credit: Nick Singleton
The lineage of post-war sculpture in Britain is often described as a dysfunctional family tree. A line of descent can be traced from Henry Moore onto Anthony Caro, who overturned his ex-employer’s dictum, “truth to materials”, with brightly painted steel structures. Next came Caro’s student Richard Long, who did away with objects entirely in his Line Made by Walking, a photograph of grass flattened by the artist’s footsteps; then the likes of Tony Cragg and Anish Kapoor, who rejected conceptual tricks and returned to making big sculptures; and eventually we reach Rachel Whiteread, at the turn of the ce