Sculpture in the Home, Pangolin London

This unusual exhibition merits some context. As part of the progressive and outward-looking cultural climate of post-war Britain – when art was publicly called upon to help overcome the grim realities of extended rationing and post-Blitz rubble  – the Arts Council’s path-breaking series of exhibitions ‘Sculpture in the Home’ sought to take British sculpture down from the plinth (something even Rodin had not been able to do with his Burghers of Calais cast installed at Westminster) and into the domestic lives of the average person. The exhibitions toured Britain from 1946 – 1959, and transformed the way sculpture was experienced: no longer, from afar, as the preserve of the military statue, but as an integral part of every day modern interiors.

Today, Pangolin London, one of the city’s only spaces devoted to the exhibition of sculpture, is putting on a contemporary version of ‘Sculpture in the Home’. Aside from the slight contradiction of replicating an historical exhibition that aimed to be quietly revolutionary within its time, this is an excellent chance to see work by some of the UK’s greatest post-war sculptors. Original Arts Council exhibitors, including Reg Butler, Geoffrey Clarke, Bernard Meadows are all present. We also see Lynn Chadwick, today thought of as a British master, recognizable by his rectangularly headed figurative installations.

Highlights on show include a wide range of Chadwick’s bronzes. These combine a small scale with the spindly thinness of the ‘Atomic age’ look. A particularly sweet Maquette for Winged Figures III (1961) looks like it could be also be a rocket. Chadwick’s Beast (1955) supports its enormous body on tiny, hilarious legs. 

The point about recreating these shows from the 40s and 50s is to replicate their unique character of exhibiting sculpture within designed domestic spaces. As well as a number of drawings and sculpture, Reg Butler designed the space in which to show them. Butler’s intimate sitting room and Gregory Clarke’s sleek dining room installations are reproduced alongside Henry Moore’s and Eduardo Paolozzi’s advanced bronzes, making this a show that is refreshingly open to embracing ‘design’ as well as ‘art’. The original exhibitions showed the public a vision of domestic modernity that could be a sanctuary from years of wartime hardship and displacement. Today, this is a must for anyone with a passion for great British design.