Yorkshire Sculpture Park

 We are so lucky up here in Yorkshire to live not far from  what must be the best sculpture Park in Britain.

It is the leading international centre for modern and contemporary sculpture, set within the 500-acre, 18th-century Bretton Hall estate in West Yorkshire.

Founded in 1977, the Park was the first sculpture park in the UK, and is the largest of its kind in Europe, providing the only place in Europe to see Barbara Hepworth’s The Family of Man in its entirety alongside a significant collection of sculpture, including bronzes by Henry Moore- in fact the largest collection of his outside sculptures in Europe.

Because it is an outdoor area for exercise, you can still go and visit it, which we did yesterday. There are always new sculptures to see and new exhbitions taking place. 

 

 

At the moment the Park is showing work by Joana Vasconcelos - a femalePortuguese artist, and Damian Hirst. Joana tends to use familiar everyday objects and puts them together to make her large sculptures. 

Here is an ring she has made using the inside of car wheels and whisky glasses.

These are two of Damian Hirst's sculptures. The pregnant lady is 11 metres high and has been cut away to reveal the insides!

Both sets of sculptures are made of bronze, then coated with paint and plastics to conceal the fact.