At last night’s private view to launch Harewood’s Epstein exhibition Finding Adam, Diane Howse (Viscountess Lascelles) announced that sculptor Antony Gormley will be showing two new pieces of work in the Terrace Gallery later this summer.

Our current exhibition ‘Finding Adam’ explores the epic journey of Sir Jacob Epstein’s magnificent alabaster sculpture Adam from his origins in Epstein’s studio in London to Harewood House in Yorkshire, via Blackpool, New York, Cape Town and the Edinburgh Festival, as well as celebrating his return from cleaning and exhibiting at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

“Adam and Epstein are a very hard act to follow,” said artist/curator Diane Howse. “I knew of Antony’s relationship to Epstein’s work and all of us here are huge fans of Antony, so we’re thrilled to have two pieces by him in the Terrace Gallery later this summer. It’s very much in keeping with our policy of showing the best of contemporary art alongside our historic collections, something my father-in-law Lord Harewood set in motion when he brought Adam here in the 1970’s. Yorkshire is rapidly becoming the place to see modern sculpture: the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and the Henry Moore Institute are well-established of course and they are about to be joined by the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield, which opens later this month. We’re proud to be playing our part in this celebration, not only with the Epstein exhibition, but also by showing work by one of Britain’s finest living artists.”

Antony Gormley adds: “I am delighted to have the opportunity to show two works at Harewood House, long associated with ‘Adam’, Epstein’s powerful evocation of masculine yearning carved from a massive block of English alabaster.

My material is iron. Smelted and cast in Wednesbury, it also engages with the block but uses the language of architecture to interpret the male human body as an unstable space made up of individual cells fused and propped together. The room in which the works will be shown is supported by four stone columns that make you aware of the load path of the building. I hope that these two works, in which columns and masses describe an unsteady vertical stack twisting through 90 degrees, will allow the viewer to think about his or her own body as a vertical tower.”

Antony Gormley’s installation will open to the public in the Terrace Gallery at Harewood on Saturday 13th August and will run till 30th October.

You can read more about the forthcoming Gormley exhibition on our webpage here… www.harewood.org/gormley

Buckingham Palace and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London are just two famous buildings that feature Scagliola, a marble imitation that was first developed in the Baroque era. Today it is often more expensive than real marble because it is so complicated to make. Only experts can determine Scagliola from the real thing.

Deutsche Welle, Germany’s equivalent of BBC-World, visited Harewood this week with Michael Koumbouzis of the Leeds-based ‘Scagliola Company’ to explore Harewood’s collections…you can see the footage on Euromaxx (Deutsche Welle’s daily life and style magazine show) here.

Visit the House from 22nd April 2011 to see if you can spot the scagliola and marble pieces we have!

http://www.harewood.org/house

‘Adam’, an extraordinary piece by one of Britain’s most important twentieth century sculptors Sir Jacob Epstein, and one of the most important items in the Harewood modern collection, was carved from a single piece of Derbyshire alabaster in 1938 and 1939.

On 11th November this year, Adam left Yorkshire for London for conservation prior to being displayed at the Royal Academy… Removing Adam from the Entrance Hall here at Harewood was a considerable feat of engineering in itself, requiring an A-frame, winch and trackway, as well as scaffolding to support the steps and undercroft of the House and a Hiab outside the building to lift the sculpture on to a lorry… a big job for the scaffolders and art handlers, and the beginning of a long journey for Adam…

Adam was uncrated today at the conservation studio where he will remain until the New Year whilst cleaning work on his surface and repairs to his base take place.

We are filming the process – short snippets of which will be available on our website in the New Year and the final film will be shown as part of the exhibition here at Harewood in the spring when Adam returns… check out our website for details: www.harewood.org/findingadam

This year’s Autumn Glory was better than ever and we had record numbers of visitors to prove it!

This classic Harewood event has always been popular but this year’s event was bigger and better including dry-stone walling demos, glass blowing, the West Garden transformed into an enchanted forest with giant toadstools, fairytale gateways and tipis as well as an all-new craft market with unique hand-made craft goodies on sale in our cosy (and massive!) 3-tipi tent on the North Front.

The West Garden tipis were full of delighted children taking part in seasonal fun, storytelling and activities… and the weather was perfect!

If you missed Autumn glory this year you missed a treat! Join us next October Half Term for entertainment and seasonal fun and to see the grounds and landscape showing their glorious autumn colours!

More details will be available on our website in the spring…

The BBC were here at Harewood this week filming for a new BBC series based on the 1936 novel ‘South Riding’ by Winifred Holtby.

Harewood House’s facade and Gallery will feature in the series as ‘Maythorpe Hall’.

The book is set in the fictional South Riding of Yorkshire, the real inspiration being the East Riding. The book won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for 1936.

The novel was first adapted for the cinema in 1937 and was later adapted for television in a 1970s production starring Hermione Baddeley, Dorothy Tutin, Nigel Davenport and Judi Bowker. A radio version starring Sarah Lancashire and Philip Glenister has been made for BBC 7 and this latest adaptation by Andrew Davies, starring David Morrissey and Anna Maxwell Martin, is being produced by the BBC to be aired later this year or next…so keep your eyes peeled…!

Read more about the shoot and the series, inlcuding comments from the actors and Andrew Davis on Screen Yorkshire’s website…