Barry Flanagan's Bronze Animals Featured in London Show
The grand stage of London's Waddington Custot gallery is currently host to a magnificent solo exhibition, a retrospective that delves deep into more than two decades of the late Barry Flanagan's celebrated career, and walking through it feels less like a traditional gallery visit and more like attending a breathtaking, silent theatrical production where the bronze actors are permanently frozen in mid-performance. Flanagan, who passed away in 2009, was a master of imbuing heavy, solid bronze with a sense of impossible lightness and whimsical motion, and this show is a veritable greatest hits album of his most beloved characters—the leaping hares, the elegant elephants, the dancing horses—all cast in a material that seems to defy its own nature to capture a moment of pure, unadulterated joy.One can almost hear the phantom applause for his iconic ‘Hare on Bell,’ a piece that combines sculptural form with the potential for sound, a clever piece of stagecraft that highlights Flanagan's unique ability to play with expectation and materiality, much like a brilliant playwright subverts a classic trope. This exhibition isn't merely a collection of statues; it's a narrative arc spanning his artistic journey, from his earlier, more experimental works with materials like sand and cloth to the full flowering of his bronze bestiary, a cast of characters that have become as recognizable on the international art scene as the protagonists of a long-running, beloved West End musical.The curation itself is masterful, guiding the viewer through a visual story where each piece plays its part, interacting with the space and with each other, creating a dialogue between the playful and the profound, the monumental and the intimate. To stand before ‘The Drummer’ is to feel the rhythm, to gaze upon ‘The Horse’ is to sense the power held in check, and to encounter his hares is to witness a symbol of myth and fertility transformed into a universal emblem of irrepressible life force. This London show is more than a tribute; it is a triumphant encore for an artist whose work continues to speak a timeless language of energy, freedom, and lyrical movement, a standing ovation in bronze that reminds us why Flanagan remains one of the most original and enduring voices in modern sculpture, his playful animals forever frolicking under the spotlights of our imagination.
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