Tag Archives: sculpture

Facing the river Thames from beneath one of its bridges

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THE BRIDGE THAT traverses the River Thames closest to London’s Tate Britain Gallery is Vauxhall Bridge. When viewed from the river’s embankments, this structure with 5 spans (arches over the water) can be seen to be adorned with statues on each of its four piers on both sides of the bridge, four facing downstream, and four facing upstream. These sculptures cannot be seen when you are on the bridge.

The bridge was opened for use in 1906. At that time, there were no sculptures on it. While it was being constructed, many prominent architects considered it to be too functional, not sufficiently appealing to the eye.  It was decided by many including the renowned architect Richard Norman Shaw (1831-1912) to put up bronze statues on the bridge’s piers.

Two sculptors were chosen to create the sculptures:  Alfred Drury (1856 – 1944), who made the pieces that face downstream, and Frederick W. Pomeroy (1856 – 1924) whose figures face upstream. Installed in 1907, the bronzes are depictions of persons representing Science, Fine Arts, Education, Local Government, Agriculture, Architecture, Engineering, and Pottery (see: https://thetidalthames.com/2022/02/06/the-vauxhall-bridge-statues/).

Today, the bridge carries much traffic, and is overlooked on both sides by tall buildings erected in the last few years. Their simple lines and functional designs make a sharp contrast with the relatively decorative bridge with its eight sculptures. Close to the northern edge of the bridge, next to a block of flats, there is another sculpture, which was made by one of Britain’s leading twentieth century artists, Henry Moore.

Modern art on display in an English country house setting

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CLAYDON HOUSE IN Buckinghamshire has been owned by the Verney family since 1620. It has been owned by the National Trust since 1956. Filled with beautifully and quite fantastically decorated rooms, the house contains many works of art – paintings, sculptures, furniture, etc – collected by the Verneys.

Until 14 September 2026, the house and its gardens are hosting an exhibition of contemporary artworks. These have been provided by the White Cube group of art galleries. More than 40 works from their collection are on display. The artists, whose work can be seen at Claydon House include (to name but a few): David Altmejd, Tracey Emin, Theaster Gates, Antony Gormley, Anselm Kiefer, Isamu Noguchi, Raqib Shaw, and Cai Guo-Qiang. These and others make a very impressive line-up. Some of the works are in the gardens, but most of them are within the house, mingling with the Verney’s own collection of objets d’art.

From the point of view of looking at these artworks, I see little point in showing them in the historic setting of Claydon House. There is something faintly amusing seeing the contemporary artwork almost competing with the variety of picturesque items within the house, which were created many years before their existence. As for the sculptures in the garden, I liked their settings.

After seeing the White Cube’s offerings at Claydon House, a thought occurred to me. The Verney’s collection of art and the interior décor of their residence reflected the aesthetic tastes of the house’s owners over the centuries. It was art that was collected by wealthy landowners who lived at Claydon and wanted to keep up with latest fashions. What I wondered was whether the family would have bought artworks such as were being lent by White Cube had they still been living in the house today. After all, what is sold by White Cube is mostly only affordable by private individuals with considerable wealth. And had the Verney family continued to live in the grand, opulent style that is reflected in the rooms of Claydon House, they might well have been tempted to add some of the kind of art – maybe not the most adventurous pieces – sold by White Cube to their collection.

Both the mansion with its historical décor and artworks and the exhibits provided by White Cube make it well worth visiting Claydon House.

The town clerk who helped to save a wall built by the Romans

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HADRIANS WALL WAS commenced in 122 AD to fulfil the order of Emperor Hadrian, who wanted to separate Roman Britain from the so-called barbarians who lived in what is now Scotland and parts of Northumberland. The wall stretched 73 miles west from Bowness-on-Solway to Wallsend (next to Newcastle) on the River Tyne. Soon after it was built, it began to decline, and over the years, people used some of its stones to construct their own buildings.

Had it not been for the efforts of people like John Clayton (1792-1890), much of what we can see of Hadrian’s Wall today might have been lost forever. After having had a classical education, Clayton was a Town Clerk of Newcastle-on-Tyne and an antiquarian.

In 1796, John’s father, Nathaniel, bought the Chesters Eastate, through which part of Hadrian’s Wall runs. In its grounds, there stands a mansion, which was built in about 1771. After his father’s death in 1822, John inherited Chesters. John, who was keen on antiquities, excavated the Roman ruins on his land. These included what was left of a Roman fort known as ‘Cilurnum’. He also discovered the remains of a Roman Bridge that traversed to Tyne from the fort. After 1832, Clayton purchased other pieces of land on which there were remains of the Wall and its associated forts.

We visited Chesters, which is maintained by English Heritage. In addition to its well conserved remaims of the various parts of the Roman fort, there is a wonderful museum that contains many roman sculptures and inscribed stone discovered by Clayton. The museum, which is filled with many fine carvings, is delightfully old-fashioned. The museum was built after John Clayton’s death, but I am sure that he would have approved of the way his finds have been displayed.

A marquis and a sculptor and a ruined abbey in Scotland

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 MUCH OF THE ABBEY church in Jedburgh is ruined. Founded in the twelfth century as an Augustinian monastery,  Jedburgh was dissolved in the sixteenth century. Now a picturesque ruin, only one part remains intact. This small chamber contains funerary monuments of the Kerr family  the marquises of Lothian.

 

The fine sculpture depicting William Schomberg Robert Kerr (1832-1870), the eighth MARQUIS of Lothian was carved in 1879. by George Frederick Watts (1817-1904).  

 

By GF Watts at Jedburgh

I was particularly interested to ‘stumble across’ this sculpture by Watts because his sculpture, “Physical Energy”, a huge bronze horseman, which stands in London’s Kensington Gardens is one I often pass while walking in that park, which is near my home.

We went to view the Angel but did not find it angelic

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RIO DE JANEIRO has its tall Cristo Redentore statue with its outstretched arms, New York City has the Statue of Liberty, and Gujarat has its tall Statue of Unity. And northeast England’s Gateshead has the Angel of the North with its outstretched wings.

 

The Angel was created by the sculptor Antony Gormley, and completed in 1998. For many years I had been looking forward to seeing it ‘in the flesh’, so to speak, and today, 22 April 2026, we drove to see it. I am sorry to say that it did not impress me. The angel’s outstretched wings, with a wingspan of 177 feet reminded me not of an angel but of a rusty aeroplane. 

 

Of the many sculptures by Gormley that I have seen over the years, this Angel is not amongst my favourites. Nevertheless,  I am glad that I have seen it, and walked around its base, but I am not sure it is worth going out of your way to see it. We happened to be staying a few miles from it in Washington,  (after which a city in the USA has been named) in Tyne and Wear, so we made a small detour to see the Angel.

It looked like a reflection but that was an illusion

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WHEN WALKING ALONG the north side of London’s Euston Road between Albany Street and Hampstead Road, I passed a metal sculpture of a man, life-size, looking into the ground floor plate glass window of a newish building, part of the Regents Place development.

At first sight, it looked as if the sculpture was being reflected by the glass. As I thought that the sculpture looked like the kind of thing created by the British sculptor Antony Gormley, I took a closer look, and saw a plate embedded on the floor next to the artwork. It read:

“Antony Gormley Reflection 2001 cast iron”.

Then, looking carefully, I realised that what I thought was a reflection was in fact a replica of the sculpture outside on the other side of the window, in the building. And as I looked at this interesting idea, I noticed that the two sculptures differed in colour, otherwise they were mirror images of each other. Simple though the sculptures are, the idea that a reflection need not be a reflection struck me as intriguing.

Architecture as art at a gallery in Bombay

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OUR FRIEND GEETHA Mehra has her art gallery on 2nd Pasta Lane, near Colaba Causeway in Bombay. On one of our visits in November 2025, she had organised an exhibition, “Behind the Façade”, which consisted of works by the contemporary artist Teja Gavankar. The artefacts on display were almost architectural, some using brickwork and others containing other materials, As the gallery’s website explained:

“Gavankar is interested in dual states, in forms that appear rigid, where solidity gives way to softness and movement. A dialogue between natural and built environments unfolds, stemming from the artist’s experience of living in Mumbai’s suburbs. Gavankar observes the contours of the city during her commute, seeing organic forms emerge in its industrial undertones.”

Whereas architects make structures which are functional, Gavanka created architectural structures that were artworks designed to challenge the viewers perceptions of space. Seeing the brickwork sculptures and the patterned brick façade she designed for the gallery reminded me of the brick workshop we saw in progress at the Chitrakala Parishad in Bangalore a few days earlier (see: https://adam-yamey-writes.com/2025/11/20/bricks-and-design-at-an-art-school-in-bangalore-bengaluru/).

By Moore it moved from Chelsea to near Tate Britain

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RECENTLY I NOTICED a sculpture close to Tate Britain but not within it.

When the Chelsea School of Art – now the Chelsea College of Art and Design – moved from Chelsea to Millbank next to Tate Britain, so did this sculpture by Henry Moore (1898-1986). Called “Two Piece Reclining Figure No 1” and created in 1959, this was originally placed in the Chelsea campus of the art school, where for a time in the 1930s Moore was Head of Sculpture. When the college relocated to Millbank, the Sculpture moved with it.