Weird and wonderful sculpture

Mar 28 2008 by Sarah Bull, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

HYBRID embryos have been in the news this week, but it’s the hybrid forms of modern sculpture which hold sway at the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, in an exhibition titled Against Nature, writes David Hammond.

This show explores an extraordinary collection of sculptures made over the last 100 years, ranging from mythical centaurs to the modernist monsters, which haunted the imagination of the post-Darwinian age.

There are fantastical combinations of animal, vegetable and human creatures by some of the foremost sculptors.

The “modern monsters” section of the show includes Emile Antoine Boudelle’s giant and impressive bronze The Dying Centaur (1914) on loan from Paris, Hans Bellmer’s The Immobile Hands (bronze) and Hans Arp’s Siren (Bronze).

Jacob Epstein’s Torso in Metal, from his Rock Drill, has a big impact, and so, too, Maria Martin’s The Impossible – two heads in tension, with spikes replacing their faces.

There are strange figures, like Andre Masson’s Hybris. Louise Bourgeois’ Nature Study is a polished bronze of a female figure with six breasts.

This exhibition (running until May 4) is unusual and entertaining, well worth visiting.

A galley spokesman said “Each hybrid sculpture has different rooms and meanings. Shown together, they offer an insight into the fantastic imagery and impulses of modern sculpture”.

The Henry Moore Institute opens seven days 10am to 5pm.