Sky Arts At Yorkshire Sculpture Park

We go behind the scenes at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Sky Arts at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

'Three piece reclinging figure number one' by Henry Moore, 1961-62
Sky Arts at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

'Draped Seated Woman' by Henry Moore, 1957-58
Sky Arts at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

'Draped Seated Woman' by Henry Moore, 1957-58
Sky Arts at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

'Family of Man' by Barbara Hepworth, 1970
Sky Arts at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

'Large Totem Head' by Henry Moore, 1968
Sky Arts at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

'Large Spindle Piece' by Henry Moore, 1968-74
Sky Arts at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

'Large Totem Head' by Henry Moore, 1968
Sky Arts at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

'Parting Company II' by Peter Randall-Page, 1996
Sky Arts at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

'Parting Company II' by Peter Randall-Page, 1996
Sky Arts at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

'The Family of Man' by Barbara Hepworth, 1970

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Sky Arts spent the last couple of months travelling to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park to find out about the people working there, the original art college that inspired the park’s executive Director, Peter Murray, to start YSP, as well as the range of artists who have since had exhibitions and residencies there.

The landscape was designed over 200 years ago as a private pleasure ground. For the last 30 odd years, YSP has used the landscape, vistas and other features to site a range of fascinating exhibitions, commissions and installations. Names such as Anthony Gormley, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Anthony Caro and many others have featured.

Whilst we were filming, the park’s recently built Underground Gallery was housing an extensive exhibition of sculpture and works on paper by artist Peter Randall-Page. Page created the imposing and beautiful seventy ton Seed sculpture for the Eden Project. He has used the large spaces of the Gallery as a catalyst and platform for an ambitious range of work which has extended his practice and given expression to ideas developed over many years. New pieces include a striking, innovative series of wall works in fired clay based on geometry and symmetry, and two monumental Kilkenny limestone carvings.

All aspects of Randall-Page’s practice are represented in this exhibition, including his working processes through the display of maquettes and models in the Project Space.

We also gained an insight into the work of artist Andy Goldsworthy. In 2007 during the park’s 30th anniversary he created three fascinating outdoor pieces that showed the breadth and direction of his work: Hanging Trees, built into one of the estate's historic ha-has, reveals the layered histories of the land and examines the political implications of walled boundaries and the curious creation of a no man’s land between the park and the farming land next door; Shadow Stone Fold remains as a sculpture, shelter and marker of farming activity; and finally the imposing Outclosure in Round Wood physically illustrates the act of making places inaccessible by enclosing a circle of land within a high, dry stone wall.

The park has a great capacity to show work by other types of artist – not just sculptors – And so we also met up with visual artist Rob Ryan and his supporter Sir Paul Smith who unveiled a wonderful exhibition of Ryan’s beautifully detailed paper cut design work. He unveiled a newly commissioned vinyl panel work that now adorns the YSP’s visitor centre.

Finally, perhaps the best bit of the entire experience going to Blaenau Ffestiniog in North Wales to spend some time with artist and sculptor David Nash. Now, I wasn’t familiar with his work, but I am now a complete convert. David showed us around his workshop and studio and gave us a fascinating interview talking about his early life, the influence of his family and then talking in detail about his working practice and the philosophies that have guided his work since the 1970’s. Yorkshire Sculpture Park will present a rich and extensive exhibition of his work, tracing the evolution of the artist's forty year career and offering a vivid statement of his life's work. Whilst filming, he took us up to see Ash Dome, his major 1977 piece that saw him plant 22 ash trees in a circle. And showed us film and video of Wooden Boulder, a 1978 work that involves a journey of large wooden sphere from a Welsh mountainside to the Atlantic Ocean. Wooden Boulder is a large wooden sphere carved by Nash in the North Wales landscape and left there to weather. Over the years the boulder has slipped, rolled and sometime been pushed through the landscape following the course of streams and rivers until finally down in the estuary. He told us about how this work came about, the original intentions for the piece and the experience of thinking wooden boulder had been lost forever.

To find out more go to ysp.co.uk