Breaking the Mould
A major new touring exhibition promises to shed light on the hidden histories of womenâs sculpture in the UK and worldwide. The Arts Council Collection, from which the exhibits are drawn, describes
Breaking the Mould: Sculpture by Women Since 1945 as âthe largest survey of its kind to dateâ. The show challenges the male-dominated narratives of post-war British sculpture, presenting work that pushes boundaries.
Aesthetica speaks to the showâs curator, Natalie Rudd, about this vital intervention in modern art history.
A: Why is this exhibition so important, thinking about the history of womenâs participation in sculptural movements in the UK and worldwide?
An Elizabethan adventure
Even when museums open, the National Portrait Gallery, which I always like to do a quick sweep through if nearby, will be closed for renovations. If you’re on Pall Mall and missing Elizabethan and Jacobean portraits there’s always ‘Love’s Labour’s Found’ at
Philip Mould (21 April–28 May), a chance to see 17 portraits that have been unearthed in recent years and are now mainly in private collections. I can’t wait to see ‘The Unintended Beauty of Disaster’ at
Lisson (13 April–5 June). If there is anyone I have been wanting to hear from during the past year of swirling and repetitive debates about the rewriting of history and the purpose of monuments, it is John Akomfrah, who has long been responding to these questions – and asking better ones – in his intelligent and evocative films and video installations.
The Black Potters Giving New Life to British Ceramics
The ceramists (from left) Phoebe Collings-James, Bisila Noha and Ronaldo Wiltshire with a selection of their works, including one of Collings-James’s glazed stoneware tiles (bottom left), a pair of Noha’s two-legged vessels in black stoneware and terra cotta (far left) and one of Wiltshire’s stoneware face sculptures (top right).Credit.Photo by Ollie Adegboye. Set design by Alice Andrews.
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The Black Potters Giving New Life to British Ceramics
A growing community of makers are creating work that reflects their identities and challenges the history of their art form in the U.K.