HOLD (1986/89) is a glass form wrapped in canvas, soaked in black bitumen and Aquaseal rubber. It is a relatively early example of a tendency towards the use of household materials and ad hoc processes that would emerge on a monumental scale later in her career in works including the Tate Britain commission dock (2014), screestage (2013) shown in The Hepworth Prize for Sculpture in 2016, and folly (2017) for the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
The two sculptures acquired for Leeds Art Gallery are the first three-dimensional works by Phyllida Barlow to enter their collection, although the Gallery holds a collection of fifteen works on paper that cover a large proportion of her career from the mid-1970s to the early 2000s. Barlow’s relationship with Yorkshire will also be reinforced through her role as the ‘provocateur’ for the first Yorkshire Sculpture International in 2019. The UK’s largest sculpture festival, YSI 2019 is a response to Barlow’s assertion that ‘sculpture is the most anthropological of the artforms’, and the free 100-day event explored what it means to create sculpture today.
