Description | Includes a complete set of four pairs of sun prints (referred as 'blobs' by Flanagan), from a total edition of 16 sets - thus constituting a quarter of the edition, mailed out by Flanagan as a very small number of individual pairs with the Rowan Gallery invitation card to his first solo show. Also comes together with the artist's holograph ink explanatory note, signed and inscribed to Fred Hunter. Each of the four pairs of prints consists of two irregularly cut sheets of light-sensitive (Gevaert) paper (the uncut sheets originally measured 25x20cm.), each of which has been marked with a 'blob', seemingly applied by the artist's finger. The first, on white (positive) paper, has been irregularly folded multiple times, with its black (negative) paper twin left unfolded and its 'blob' visible in gold. Both positive and negative sheets are initialled by the artist. Flanagan's holograph note, written on one side of an envelope, reads: 'to fred hunter one set of a total of 16 sets. distributed in co. with catologue [sic] to sculpture show rowan gal aug '66 all segments or 1/8ths of sets marked so: f in this blue ink from this "pentel" pen best wishes barry flanagan p.s. I think the marks on photo paper are best described as blobs.' It is understood that this is the only complete set extant, and there is not examples within the Flanagan Archive. |
Administrative History | There are 162 works by Barry Flanagan in the Tate collection - made up of 18 sculptures, 1 film, 13 drawings and 130 prints. He was one of the most significant and consistently inventive British sculptors of his generation. First emerging in the mid-1960s in the context of the artistic experimentation typified by St Martin's School of Art, his sculpture attended to questions of material, process, form and idea and led to his work being critically received in the context of conceptual art and arte povera; an emphasis on the importance of making and craft subsequently led him to concentrate on casting from the early 1980s. |
Custodial History | Gifted to Frederic Hunter by the artist; purchased by Andrew Sclanders Beat Books from Jill Hunter, the widow of Frederic Hunter, 2015 |