Clive Barker British, b. 1940
Heart, 1969-96
Polished aluminium
H: 27.3 x W: 15.5 x D: 10 cm
Signed, dated and titled underneath
Ed. 5/6
Ed. 5/6
Currency:
Hearts are a recurring theme in Barker's sixty year career as a sculptor. During the 1960s he casted many objects decorated with or containing hearts. The rawness of the muscle...
Hearts are a recurring theme in Barker's sixty year career as a sculptor. During the 1960s he casted many objects decorated with or containing hearts. The rawness of the muscle as is displayed in the current work is arresting. Whereas the playful heart shapes of his youth referred to love and desire, the present work communicates the power of life and death. By placing it on a cast of a rock, Barker honours the 'Heart' as the principle muscle, the vital source of life.
As one of Great Britain's foremost Pop artists, Clive Barker continues to surprise with works defined by youthful freshness, originality, immediacy and humour, in which he has retained his commitment to the Pop movement. By replicating functional, mass-produced objects in gleaming metals, Barker has redefined Marcel Duchamp's concept of the 'ready-made'. His recreations of the ordinary awaken a sense of amazement at the beauty of the familiar, reinventing the surrounding world, giving his art a life-enhancing quality. His metal casts of 'ready-mades' predate the 1980s work of Jeff Koons.
The work of Clive Barker is in museum collections worldwide including: National Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; British Museum, London; Tate, London; National Portrait Gallery, London; Museum für moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; Städtische Kunsthalle Mannheim; Museu Coleção Berardo, Lisbon; The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia Museum of Art.
As one of Great Britain's foremost Pop artists, Clive Barker continues to surprise with works defined by youthful freshness, originality, immediacy and humour, in which he has retained his commitment to the Pop movement. By replicating functional, mass-produced objects in gleaming metals, Barker has redefined Marcel Duchamp's concept of the 'ready-made'. His recreations of the ordinary awaken a sense of amazement at the beauty of the familiar, reinventing the surrounding world, giving his art a life-enhancing quality. His metal casts of 'ready-mades' predate the 1980s work of Jeff Koons.
The work of Clive Barker is in museum collections worldwide including: National Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; British Museum, London; Tate, London; National Portrait Gallery, London; Museum für moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; Städtische Kunsthalle Mannheim; Museu Coleção Berardo, Lisbon; The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia Museum of Art.