In March this year we went to Finsbury Park in London to Phyllida Barlow’s to interview her for the A brush with… podcast. Tragically, Phyllida died a few days later. This conversation is therefore a tribute to one of the most important British artists of recent years.
by Phyllida Barlow untitled: quay: empty staircase palisade (2014) © Phyllida Barlow, courtesy of the artist
Ardently attached to sculpture and convinced of its special power, she was erudite and insightful, but also irreverent and suspicious of orthodoxies. This was evident in his combinations of simple materials such as wood, plaster and canvas, cement, paint and fabric in extraordinary sculptures and installations. She managed to achieve both awkwardness and grace, humor and pathos, the grandiose and the intimate.
by Phyllida Barlow untitled: hanging monument (2015) © Phyllida Barlow, courtesy of the artist
Among other things, Phyllida discusses the morality imposed on sculpture when she was at the school of fine arts, the “dirty side of doing” underestimated in the work of Marcel Duchamp, her admiration for Louise Nevelson and Eduardo Chillida, the writing of Fiodor Dostoyevsky and the films of Robert Bresson. . Plus, she answers our usual questions, including a moving answer to the ultimate question, “What is art for?”
Phyllida Barlow in 1978 © Phyllida Barlow
• Phyllida Barlow, Chillida LekuHernani, near San Sebastian, Spain, until October 22
• The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Toronto, September 8-February 4, 2024
