Video: 'Exorcising the Fear' at Pangolin London

In 1952, a group of eight young British sculptors burst onto the international scene at the XXVI Venice Biennale.

The art historian Herbert Read coined the phrase 'the geometry of fear' to describe the work of this new generation, whose angular, spiky works seemed a deliberate departure from the monumental and rounded organic forms of earlier British sculptors such as Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. Read saw the works as a direct response to the anxieties of a post-war world.

The group included Kenneth Armitage, Geoffrey Clarke, Lynn Chadwick and Eduardo Paolozzi, all of whom would go on to become Royal Academicians.

Pangolin London's current exhibition 'Exorcising the Fear: British Sculpture from the 1950s' revisits this key moment in history of British art, bringing together works by all eight artists that have a close association with the original works shown in Venice.

In the video above, Pangolin's Alexandra Darby introduces the exhibition, and explains why its title hints at the need to see these works with fresh eyes.

• Exorcising the Fear: British Sculpture from the 1950s (Pangolin London, until 3 March 2012)

• Royal Academy of Arts