Richard Deacon
Tate Britain
5 February- 27th April 2014
Tate Britain
5 February- 27th April 2014
Recently at the Tate Britain a retrospective was made on the british artist Richard Deacon’s work, primarily Deacon’s drawings, these drawings clearly show the process Deacon goes through to producing the drawings. You can see the rubbed out marks from previous lines, and overlapping lines go through each other to produce drawings that incorporate organic flowing lines that intersect that produce complex shapes that you wouldn’t be surprised to find out in nature. With the drawings you could imagine that they are the beginning of his sculptures, the organic shapes seen in the drawings easily translate to the large sculptures clearly noticeable as work by Deacon.
The sculptures themselves are a sight to behold, the organic shapes and flowing lines draw you into the piece, following the curves of the shapes looping around until you arrive at where you started. This gives the viewer a complete view of the work, forcing them to walk around the sculptures to see every possible detail that Deacon has put into the piece. The materials used play an important part in the way these pieces of work, ranging from laminated wood to plastic, these materials are important in the creation of the pieces as they are a main factor that draw in the viewer. Even if it was made out of white plastic and set in a white room I feel you would still have the same impact as you would get from one of the wood pieces, the shapes are what draw people to Deacon’s sculptures
Scale is an important factor in the creation of Deacon’s work, and the middle room of the exhibition displays some of the smaller scale pieces design to be lived with that would hopefully promote meaningful relationships. However these works didn’t get the same impact as his larger pieces, regardless of this these pieces are an interesting sight, as I’ve never seen Deacon work at this scale, rather I assumed he didn’t. Apart from unexpected work in the exhibition I wouldn’t expect anything less in the layout of the work, allowing visitors clear views of the drawings and complete 360 access around the sculptures to grasp a full understanding of what Deacon’s work is all about.
References:
Le Brun, L. (2014). Richard Deacon. [online] thisistomorrow. Available at: http://thisistomorrow.info/articles/richard-deacon [Accessed 2 May. 2014].
The sculptures themselves are a sight to behold, the organic shapes and flowing lines draw you into the piece, following the curves of the shapes looping around until you arrive at where you started. This gives the viewer a complete view of the work, forcing them to walk around the sculptures to see every possible detail that Deacon has put into the piece. The materials used play an important part in the way these pieces of work, ranging from laminated wood to plastic, these materials are important in the creation of the pieces as they are a main factor that draw in the viewer. Even if it was made out of white plastic and set in a white room I feel you would still have the same impact as you would get from one of the wood pieces, the shapes are what draw people to Deacon’s sculptures
Scale is an important factor in the creation of Deacon’s work, and the middle room of the exhibition displays some of the smaller scale pieces design to be lived with that would hopefully promote meaningful relationships. However these works didn’t get the same impact as his larger pieces, regardless of this these pieces are an interesting sight, as I’ve never seen Deacon work at this scale, rather I assumed he didn’t. Apart from unexpected work in the exhibition I wouldn’t expect anything less in the layout of the work, allowing visitors clear views of the drawings and complete 360 access around the sculptures to grasp a full understanding of what Deacon’s work is all about.
References:
Le Brun, L. (2014). Richard Deacon. [online] thisistomorrow. Available at: http://thisistomorrow.info/articles/richard-deacon [Accessed 2 May. 2014].