Follow a dazzling sculpture trail this summer

If you like your art in three-dimensional form, this season offers rich pickings. The Arts Society Magazine editor Sue Herdman highlights some of the best

Where did I learn to understand sculpture? In the woods by looking at the trees, along roads by observing the formation of clouds, in the studio by studying the model, everywhere except in the schools.’

This was Auguste Rodin (1840–1917), rule breaker and master of the three-dimensional in art. Considered by many to be the greatest sculptor of his time, it’s remarkable to recall his career began with a sizeable setback, being rejected as a student at École des Beaux-Arts. Once in his stride though, and in radical fashion, Rodin taught us much about the power of sculpture and how best to view it.

We know this art form can be transformative, whether displayed on the landscape or within walls. And this summer is proving to be particularly good for displays, from sites such as Castle Howard in Yorkshire to London’s Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.

Here are just seven of the best.

Marc Quinn’s Burning Desire at Kew. Image: © RBG Kew

1. Quinn at Kew

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew has a strong association with major sculptural shows – who can forget Dale Chihuly’s glossy glass intervention in 2019? Now artist Marc Quinn has a staging of sensational works here with the exhibition Marc Quinn: Light into Life. Seventeen stainless steel and bronze sculptures have been created in response to the wonders of Kew; you’ll find them in the gardens and the Temperate House. They are the result of Quinn’s collaboration with Kew’s scientists and horticulturalists – a project that has enabled him to discover more about the forms and shapes of plants across Kew’s collection. Don’t miss, too, the chance to visit the Shirley Sherwood Gallery within the gardens, where you’ll also find new and existing paintings, drawings, sculpture and famed frozen works by the artist.

Until 29 September; kew.org

Six Women, 2012–14, by Bharti Kher. Image: © Bharti Kher/courtesy of the artist and Perrotin/photo © Ben Symons

2. Female form 

Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) has just opened its summer headline exhibition Bharti Kher: Alchemies. Kher works between London and India and creates art that celebrates diversity, personal identity and discovery. Her practice offers, too, says YSP, ‘an exploration of the past, present and future of sculpture’. The group of works on show span the last 24 years of Kher’s practice and are centred on the female body and experience. Expect goddesses and monsters, mothers and avatars, the powerful and vulnerable. Seen here is her moving Six Women, plaster casts of sex workers in Kolkata, described as ‘intimate portraits that consider the purpose of transaction, exchange and consumerism’.

Until 27 April 2025; ysp.org.uk

STRIP-TOWER (2023), by Gerhard Richter. Image: © 2024, Gerhard Richter, Prudence Cuming Associates

3. Richter in the gardens

A soaring new public sculpture can currently stop you in your tracks in London’s leafy Kensington Gardens. Unveiled by Serpentine and The Royal Parks, it is the work of German artist Gerhard Richter (b.1932). Called STRIP-TOWER (2023), its genesis lies in Richter’s 2010 series of Strip Paintings, which in turn was spurred by his earlier ‘squeegee painting’ Abstract Painting 724-4 (1990). In addition, it channels his 1966 Grid series. Made with vibrant striped ceramic tiles cladding two panels, this is a sculpture that viewers can stand within or without and builds on Richter’s interest in reflections and repetitions. Find it on the plinth at Serpentine South in the gardens.

Until 20 October; serpentinegalleries.org

Mumble, 2023, by Hany Armanious. Image: courtesy of the artist and Fine Arts, Sydney

4. Boundary breaker

The Henry Moore Institute in Leeds has had a major refurbishment and reopens on 12 July with a programme of sculpture that focuses on artists, much like Rodin, who push the boundaries in sculpture. One such is one of Australia’s leading sculptors, Hany Armanious, who was born in Egypt in 1962. This is his first solo show in a European arts institution and is entitled Hany Armanious: Stone Soup. Armanious is an alchemist of an artist, transforming objects into pieces that play with your mind and the idea of originality.

12 July–3 November; henry-moore.org/hmi

Antony Gormley’s Time Horizon, 2006, installed at Houghton Hall 2024. Photograph: Pete Huggins

5. Figures on the landscape

Houghton Hall in Norfolk has a reputation for staging world-class art and this summer is no exception. Sculpture works especially well here – witness past shows by Damien Hirst, Anish Kapoor, Richard Long and more. This season not one but two contemporary sculptural artists have their work featured. Magdalene Odundo is one of the world’s top ceramic artists (see our past interview with her here). For this staging she has created a series of sculptures made and placed in response to Houghton’s magnificent state rooms. View this grouping and earlier works by this artist until 29 September. Meanwhile, Antony Gormley’s installation Time Horizon has arrived, shown across the house and grounds until 31 October, featuring 100 cast-iron life-size figures. Gormley describes this installation as a curious form of acupuncture, interacting with the surroundings, trees, deer, house and even the weather.

houghtonhall.com

Artist Hiroko Imada’s Sakura saku, 2024, in the Sculpture Gallery. Image: © Watts Gallery Trust/photo: Rosie Scrace

6. Now and then

Score a date in the diary to visit Watts Gallery – Artists’ Village in Surrey, the one-time home of mighty Victorian painter George Frederic Watts. This summer you’ll find a true mix of past and present in the Sculpture Gallery. Known for his portraits, Watts doesn’t always come to mind as a sculptor, yet for decades he worked within the medium. Here you can view, among other pieces, his monumental, full-scale plaster models for his Physical Energy and Monument to Lord Tennyson. This beautiful site is also hosting the exhibition Edo Pop: Japanese Prints 1825–1895, a collection of 19th-century Japanese woodblock prints from the collection of art historian and writer Frank Milner. As part of this show artist Hiroko Imada has created a site-specific installation in the Sculpture Gallery called Sakura saku (‘Cherry blossoms are blooming’), celebrating the natural themes in the 19th-century prints. This installation sits beautifully – and delicately – among Watts’s compelling sculptural pieces.

Until 6 October; wattsgallery.org.uk

Industrial Nature, Aluminium, 2024, by Tony Cragg. Photo by Michael Richter

7. A first for the castle

Heading back to Yorkshire for our final choice, the work of sculptor and Turner Prize winner Tony Cragg is proving to be a show-stopper in its new surrounds – the interiors and grounds of Castle Howard. Tony Cragg at Castle Howard includes 28 works, many of which have never been shown in the UK before. The display is also a first for the castle, as its inaugural major exhibition of contemporary sculpture. Cragg’s wish is that, without audio guides on offer, visitors engage with these pieces entirely in their own way. ‘When you come to an artwork you come to it with the sum of your education, your personality, your upbringing, your life experiences, and you find in an artwork your relationship to those things,’ he told The Guardian in a recent encounter. Rodin, no doubt, would agree.

Until 22 September; castlehoward.co.uk 

For news on more great art shows this season see The Arts Society Magazine summer issue. The magazine is available exclusively to members and supporters of The Arts Society. To join see theartssociety.org/member-benefits