The first exhibition in the Frink Studio’s new location presents sculpture in context and celebrates the work of a number of twentieth century and contemporary artists including Thiébaut Chagué, Frank Dobson, Laurence Edwards, Elisabeth Frink, Sir Terry Frost, Bridget McCrum, Henry Moore, Albert Paley, Ti Parks and Brian Taylor. Sculptural practice involves a range of different artforms as part of its process and the space itself is just the starting point. The work on show encompasses draughtmanship, maths, measurement, modelling and metals. Viewed together in the context of each other enables a greater understanding of process and the individual works of art. While the selected pieces stand on their own merit, collectively they highlight the use of the figure as archetype for emotional content and suggest the power the figure manifests within the psychological narrative of art. Akin to the building they inhabit, they are both muse and totem.

A significant group of approximately 30 works by the artist Brian Taylor (1935-2013) will be on show in the exhibition including many bronze sculptures which have rarely been on public display since the early 1960s. Taylor studied at the Slade School of Art in the mid-1950s and his early prowess as a sculptor of the human figure resulted in him gaining a coveted three-year scholarship to Rome. The artworks Taylor encountered there stimulated him enormously, ranging from classical sculpture through to early twentieth-century modernism, and pervaded the work which followed.

The works on display in this exhibition span the artist’s career and demonstrates his fascination with the study of both human and animal forms, the essence of which illustrates his accuracy of describing movement and his unparalleled observation of animated volume. In 1998 Taylor was elected a member of the Society of Portrait Sculptors and the Royal Society of British Sculptors. The following year a retrospective exhibition, Sculpting from Life was held in Cork Street, London. Despite the artist’s remarkable output, his work remains best known to a select circle of friends, patrons and enthusiasts. We are delighted to be showing this significant collection of Taylor’s work within the context of this exhibition celebrating figurative sculpture.