Dame Phyllida Barlow | Artist | Royal Academy of Arts

Dame Phyllida Barlow RA (b. 1944)

For more than 50 years, British artist Phyllida Barlow has taken inspiration from her surroundings to create imposing installations that can be at once menacing and playful. She creates tactile, seemingly precarious sculptures that resonate with emotional intensity and the urgency of their creation. These constructions are often painted in vibrant colors and the means of their construction left visible, revealing their inexpensive, industrial materials: cardboard, fabric, plywood, polystyrene, scrim and cement.

Barlow studied at Chelsea College of Art (1960 – 1963) and the Slade School of Art (1963 – 1966). She later taught at both schools and was Professor of Fine Art and Director of Undergraduate Studies at the latter until 2009.

In 2011 Barlow became a Royal Academician and in 2015 she was made a CBE for her services to the arts in the Queen’s New Year Honours. In 2017, Barlow represented Great Britain at the Venice Biennale. She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2021.

In February of 2019, Barlow created an entirely new exhibition in our Gabrielle Jungels-Winkler Galleries, which she conceived as her own interpretation of a residential cul-de-sac. By closing the exit door in the final room, Barlow forced the viewer to turn around and revisit each sculpture anew, from the other side. She created forests of seemingly precarious structures, exploring the full height of the gallery space with looming beams, blocks and canvases.

Profile

Royal Academician

Sculptor

Born: 1944 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, United Kingdom

Elected RA: 26 May 2011

Elected Senior RA: 1 October 2019

Gender: Female

Preferred media: Sculpture

Works by Dame Phyllida Barlow in the RA Collection

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Dame Phyllida Barlow RA

untitled: female; 2018, 2018

Cement panels over timber framed plywood lined boxes with steel top part

Digital premiere: PHYLLIDA (2019, 24 min)

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Enjoy this exclusive digital premiere of the film ‘PHYLLIDA’, a documentary portrait of the artist Phyllida Barlow. Released on her birthday, this film celebrates her pioneering contribution to the field of sculpture.

‘PHYLLIDA’ is produced by Hauser & Wirth, in association with Third Channel and Peacock Pictures.

My studio life

Welcome to Bermondsey

“I’ve been in this space in Bermondsey for two years. I still have my studio at home in Finsbury Park…”

© Eamonn McCabe

Studio 2

“…but I need this for larger-scale works.”

© Eamonn McCabe

Coffee?

“This is a very busy period for us, as we’re in the middle of working on the Duveen commission for Tate Britain.”

© Eamonn McCabe

Scaling up

“I started using assistants for the very large works in the early 1990s.”

© Eamonn McCabe

Working as a team

“It’s always odd being the artist with assistants, because it looks like you’re not doing anything!”

© Eamonn McCabe

Opportunities knocked

“These are very skilled practitioners, but there just aren’t the opportunities around now for artists. If you’re an artist, you don’t necessarily want to be making somebody else’s work…”

© Eamonn McCabe

Stability

“… but at least this provides them with some stability.”

© Eamonn McCabe

"An industrial scale"

“In my home studio, I use very simple and limited technology – simple hand drills and the like. This is almost working on an industrial scale.”

© Eamonn McCabe

A performative process

“I don’t know in advance how any particular project will work out. It can’t just be designed by me for somebody else to execute. So it all happens here in the space – the process is sort of performative in that way.”

© Eamonn McCabe

"Space is something to be explored"

“I enjoy the idea of reaching into the space of the space, beyond the human scale, exploring overhead or underfoot – my work is often parasitic or antagonistic to the building. I see each space as something to be explored, rather than just a place to put something.”

© Eamonn McCabe

The importance of tradition

“I don’t know any art that isn’t traditional in some ways. The minute you’ve decided it’s art, you’re immediately involved in the tradition of being looked at and being seen.”

© Eamonn McCabe

A surprise visit

“On which note, here are my daughter and granddaughter – just in time for lunch.”

© Eamonn McCabe

My work is about drawing attention to the way the world around us frustrates and surprises us. All sorts of things happen that make me intrigued about our everyday choreography within the urban landscape.

Phyllida Barlow RA

Selected CV
- Recent solo exhibitions
  
  2019 Royal Academy of Arts, London, England
  2018 Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh, Scotland
  2017 British Pavilion, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
  Turner Contemporary, Margate
  2016 Kunsthalle Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
  2015 Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, USA
  Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh
  Lokremise, St. Gallen, Switzerland
  2014 Tate Britain, London
  Hauser & Wirth, London
  Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Somerset
  2013 Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines
  Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach
  Contemporary Art Society, London
  2012 New Museum, New York
  Henry Moore Institute, Leeds
  Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen Hauser & Wirth, New York
  2011 Hauser & Wirth, London
  Kunstverein Nürnberg, Nuremberg, Germany
  2010 Studio Voltaire, London
  V22, London
  BAWAG Contemporary, Vienna, Austria
- Selected collections
  
  Tate, London
  
  Henry Moore Institute, Leeds
  Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
  Hessel Museum, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson
  Museum Ludwig, Cologne
  Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen
  Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich
- Selected publications
  
  Franzen, Brigitte (ed.), ‘Phyllida Barlow: Brink’, Cologne: Walter König, 2013
  Phillips, Lisa, Carrion-Murayari, Gary [et al.], ‘Siege’, New York: New Museum, 2012
  Le Feuvre, Lisa (ed.), ‘Essays on Sculpture: Bad Copies: the drawings of Phyllida Barlow’, Leeds: Henry Moore Institute, 2012
  König, Kaspar, Trummer, Thomas D. (eds.), ‘Before the Law: Post-War Sculptures and Spaces of Contemporary Art’, Cologne: Museum Ludwig/Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2012
  Munder, Heike, Trummer, Displaced Fractures. On the Break Lines of Architecture and its Bodies, Thomas D, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, 2011
  
  Phyllida Barlow and Fiona Macdonald, Phyllida Barlow and Fiona Macdonald, Coexist Publications, 2011
  
  Christine Kintisch, Phyllida Barlow: STREET, BAWAG Contemporary, 2010
  
  Kathryn Rattee and Melissa Larner, Nairy Bagramian & Phyllida Barlow, Serpentine Gallery and Koenig Books, 2010
  
  Ronnie Simpson and Phyllida Barlow, Phyllida Barlow: STINT, Mead Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre, 2008