CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 7/23/2014

Phyllida Barlow: Fifty Years of Drawings

In her introduction to JRP|Ringier's superb new Phyllida Barlow survey, Fifty Years of Drawings, Hauser & Wirth senior director Sara Harrison writes, "Most of Phyllida Barlow’s sculptures from the last fifty years have been destroyed. The materials were either disposed of or recycled into new works. This decision was initially motivated by necessity (lack of space, finance, etc.), but over time this process of destruction has become part of Barlow’s questioning of sculpture’s traditional values of permanence, durability, and longevity. What survives from the last decades is a rich archive of drawings dating back to the 1960s. These provide the artist’s own account of the missing sculptures. Moreover they are an integral part of her artistic output: works in their own right." The untitled early-70s pencil drawing featured here is reproduced from Phyllida Barlow: Fifty Years of Drawings.