The Venice Biennale is one of the most important festivals in the art world calendar, with over a hundred different artists chosen to represent their respective countries. Yet one of the most exciting and unpredictable choices has been Phyllida Barlow’s appointment to the UK pavilion. Having long been resigned to the fringes of the art world, this placement at the Biennale has confirmed her immense importance in the UK art scene.
She remains humble regarding the choice, stating that: “It’s a massive honour. Having been that thing called a minor British artist for most of my working life, I’m now getting things beyond my wildest dreams.” Nevertheless, she has little to be stunned about; her large installations are some of the most innovative and thought-provoking works currently being produced and shown in London.
But what do we know about Phyllida Barlow’s work, and what can we expect from her at the upcoming Venice Biennale? We’ve compiled a list of five essential things you need to know about the UK artist.
“Untitled: wall blob 1,” 2010 by Phyllida Barlow. Courtesy of the Serpentine Gallery
1. Most of her success has come in the past 10 years
She was born in 1944 and started creating in the ’60s. However, it is only within the past ten years that her work has reached a larger audience. Her first major show was in 2010 at the Serpentine Gallery. This speaks to the gendered standards of art appreciation in the country. As The Tate Modern’s director Frances Morris has stated: “Many great women artists have suffered from the shadow effect, they have been out of public view until their 60s and 70s”. It seems that the Venice Biennale will be the platform that finally befits one Britain’s best artists.
“Majesty,” 2006 by Tacita Dean. Courtesy of the Tate
2. She has taught some of the best
Barlow supplemented her income by teaching at the Slade School of Fine Art for more than 40 years. During this time, she tutored some of the best and brightest, including Tacita Dean, Douglas Gordon, Martin Creed and Rachel Whiteread. Nevertheless, she doesn’t consider teaching the big names to be the most important part of teaching: “I was much more aware of those students who were struggling because I could completely empathise with that. I knew so much what it was like to find it difficult to make things work.”
From “Dock,” 2014 by Phyllida Barlow. Courtesy of the Tate
3. She prefers to work with inexpensive materials
The materials Phyllida Barlow uses for her monumental sculptures can be found in the everyday: tape, tarpaulin, paper, polystyrene, rubber and cardboard. By doing so, she creates sculptures that appear as if they could easily collapse. On her decision to avoid solid and expensive materials, she reasons: “‘I’m… curious about… abstract qualities of time, weight, balance, rhythm; collapse and fatigue versus the more upright dynamic notions of maybe posture.”
“Upturned House,” 2012 by Phyllida Barlow. Courtesy of the Tate
4. Most of her older work no longer exists
Due to the size of some of her work, preservation becomes a costly issue. Therefore in the ’80s, after a gallery screening, she simply had to either recycle it or simply throw it away. It was only in 2010 that she finally found representation from Hauser & Wirth. Unlike many artists, especially the ones that came in the ’90s, she never felt in a position to sell her work: “It’s not that I didn’t want to sell work, it just didn’t occur to me that I was in a position to sell work. I didn’t know how you found people to sell your work to. Instead of getting the paraphernalia to do that, I just wanted to get on and make the work.”
From “Dock,” 2014 by Phyllida Barlow. Courtesy of the Tate
5. She works primarily at nighttime
Phyllida Barlow finds the nighttime to be the most conducive to her work. The habit started from having no time between teaching and looking after her five kids to work on her sculptures. As she says of the approach: “That moment of absolute peace and calm was very good in the dark. It also seemed a way of saying, ‘I don’t know what this is going to end up being, I just want contact with the materials. I remember mixing plaster, and a lot of it was mixed quite badly, but just letting that be.”
For even more on the artists of this year’s Venice Biennale, don’t forget to read our article on 5 Things You Need to Know About Anne Imhof