Contemporary Art Society and The Henry Moore Foundation present large-scale sculptures by Alison Wilding to UK museum collections.

The Contemporary Art Society and The Henry Moore Foundation are pleased to announce that eight sculptures by British sculptor Alison Wilding have been presented, through the generosity of an anonymous private donor, to UK public collections including The Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester; Arts Council Collection; Tate; Manchester Art Gallery and Leeds City Art Gallery.

In 1998 the donor commissioned Alison Wilding to produce a body of sculpture on a grand scale that explored the events of the Passion of Christ, once the most familiar story in the Western world. The challenge described by Wilding was to make sixteen sculptures that represented each event on at least a human scale and which embodied the emotive nature of the narrative. Exhibited in 2000 at The Henry Moore Foundation Studio, Dean Clough, Halifax under the title Contract, the first series of eight ambitious sculptures resolved the problem of reflecting the double imperatives of story-telling and sculpture-making.

It was always the intention of the anonymous patron that these works should enter public collections in the UK. The Contemporary Art Society and The Henry Moore Foundation are delighted that they have all now found a home.

Since her debut in the 1980's Wilding has consistently produced ambitious and innovative sculptures, working on a variety of scales, and with a wide range of modern and traditional materials.  This commission provided her with unusual freedom to essay new combinations of forms in the search to find abstract equivalents for a deeply human story.