Chatsworth event marks tenth year

Titled Beyond Limits: The Landscape of British Sculpture 1950-2015, the exhibition runs from September 14 until October 25 and is the biggest staged to date by Sotheby’s at Chatsworth.

Guest curated by Tim Marlow, the director of artistic programmes at The Royal Academy of Arts, the exhibition will feature more than 30 monumental sculptures woven into the landscape of the famous garden at Chatsworth, home to the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire.

Beyond Limits will consider the breadth and international impact of some of the best sculpture by Britain’s leading artists of the past 65 years.

Highlights include Barbara Hepworth’s Three Obliques (Walk-In), Anthony Caro’s Sunshine and Lynn Chadwick’s Pair of Walking Figures – Jubilee alongside works by Antony Gormley, Sarah Lucas, Reg Butler and Philip King.

Tim Marlow commented: “Combining a selection of some of the most exciting and important monumental sculpture with the extraordinarily beautiful garden at Chatsworth, we’ve been able to curate an exhibition that not only responds to the growing interest in outdoor sculpture, but also explores and celebrates the rise and rise of British sculpture.

“The relationship of the landscape to the works on display is integral, whether the artists or the works themselves were informed or inspired by the landscape, or whether they challenge the landscape.

Ranging from synergetic to radical, the result of this interplay between the sculptures and the landscape is magnificent in its effect.”

Over the past 15 years, the Chatsworth House Trust and the Devonshire family have continued to purchase and commission contemporary sculpture for public display. Works by Michael Craig Martin, Dame Elisabeth Frink, Angela Conner, Barry Flanagan, David Nash, Laura Ellen Bacon, Gary Breeze and Allen Jones can be found throughout the garden and park.

The Duke of Devonshire said: “We have long championed and displayed outdoor sculpture as part of the permanent collection at Chatsworth.

“Given the outstanding quality in this year’s Beyond Limits, and with Tim Marlow as guest curator, I think we’ll all be able to appreciate the enormous contribution British artists have made to the development of contemporary sculpture across the world.”

Melanie Clore, Chairman, Europe, of exhibition organisers Sotheby’s added: “Since its inception, Beyond Limits has proved to be a consistently surprising and exhilarating annual art event.

“To mark its tenth year, we are thrilled to be staging our first themed exhibition and to have Tim Marlow working together with Simon Stock, our Senior International Specialist, bringing their expertise and tremendous energy and vision to curating this outstanding show of British sculpture in the grounds of Chatsworth.”

Exhibits will be on display from 11am-6pm every day at no extra charge beyond normal garden admission. See www.chatsworth.org