Nicholas Pope

Investigating material and form, Nicholas Pope’s vivid and energetic drawing has informed the artist’s sculpture throughout his career.

Having predominantly employed variations of circles and holes in graphite and charcoal throughout the 1970–80s, since the early 1990s Pope has introduced more complex and vibrant arrangements of colour in Indian ink, paint and biro.

Engaging with themes of ritual, religion and morality, the drawings coexist alongside the artist’s sculpture; developing out of other works as well as becoming a foundation for new ideas.

Accompanied by over 90 images of drawings spanning four decades, the volume includes a text by James Hamilton and an exchange between the artist and Jon Wood, which focuses on the drawings’ deployment of colour as well as their relationship to Pope’s sculpture.

Nicholas Pope’s multivalent sculpture explores the inherent physical qualities of his materials. This landmark monograph presents the first substantial overview of his work.

British artist Nicholas Pope was best known in the 1970s and early 1980s for his large-scale sculptures made of wood, metal, stone, sheet lead or chalk.

Following his 1980 exhibition representing Britain at the Venice Biennale, Pope was awarded a Cultural Visitor grant to Zimbabwe and Tanzania; an experience that affected the rest of his life and twisted his artistic practice completely. In a move towards softer, more malleable materials such as glass, porcelain, texture, moulded aluminium and ceramics, Pope began to make abstract works that reference complicated themes of spirituality, suicide and society.

The first comprehensive monograph on the artist, this publication features over 150 colour illustrations alongside an introduction to the artist by Penelope Curtis, an analysis of the work's religious themes by Christopher Townsend and Andrew Sabin's exploration of Pope's recent work.