Sculpture Promenade at the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge

27 April 2009

On 27th April 2009 the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge opened the inaugural annual exhibition of contemporary sculpture.  The Fitzwilliam Museum houses world-class collections of works of art and antiquities spanning centuries and civilisations.  However the addition of contemporary work on the lawns enables the Museum to immediately inform the public of the presence and purpose of the Museum.

The 2009 Fitzwilliam Sculpture Promenade inaugurates a new showcase for contemporary and modern sculpture on the lawns of the Fitzwilliam Museum – an annual exhibition that may be enjoyed freely by all. This installation has been selected and organised by the Museum’s director Timothy Potts and Cambridge sculptor Helaine Blumenfeld, Vice President of the Royal British Society of Sculptors (RBS). The nine works by eight sculptors were selected from submissions by members of the RBS, and will be on display until January 2010. The project has been generously sponsored by the Unex Group, Cambridge.

The expansive lawns and historic façade of the Museum provide a striking backdrop for the display of contemporary art, which this and future installations will seek to exploit. The works have been designed for outdoor display, where they interact physically and aesthetically with their landscape and with visitors. Many are conceived and fashioned in ways that respond to changes in light, weather and the seasons; here the effects of exposure to the elements are welcomed as part of the works’ dynamic and evolving character. Visitors are invited to walk amongst the sculptures and interact with them. Touching is permitted - unlike inside the Museum - although climbing and any other activity that could cause personal injury or damage to the works are not allowed.

The 2009 Fitzwilliam Museum Sculpture Promenade features work by David Begbie, Richard Fenton, Charles Hadcock, Diane Maclean, Terry New, Andrew Stonyer, Johannes von Stumm and Wu Wei-Shan. The piece being exhibited by Begbie is a large hand suspended in a giant easel.  It is precisely because Begbie is a sculptor and the majority of his work is modelled by hand that Palm I is appropriately a self-portrait. This sculpture is not a truncated form, but rather a delineated palm, existing as a complete form in its own right. The easel in which it is suspended draws reference to the interplay between sculpture and drawing which constitutes his artform and technique. Light plays an integral part in Begbie’s work, and in outdoor display this sculpture changes dramatically when the translucent properties of the medium combine with ever shifting light conditions. In full sunlight the piece becomes a simple hand shape, ethereal and transparent, but when light strikes across the surface, the intricate detail of the self-portrait becomes vividly apparent.

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