MICHAEL SANDLE is a great man and a great artist with a conscience-stricken sense of outrage at the futility of violence, which gives an extra edge to his imaginative genius. The word 'genius' does not exactly spring to mind when viewing some of the recent trivialisations of sculpture in England, but, in Prof Sandle's case, I am deploying it with precision and from solid.
comparative evidence... '[his] drawings are among the most beautiful and haunting of the 20th century and have to be considered on equal terms with the sculpture' This tribute to the monumental sculptor could not be more authoritative. Bryan Robertson (1925-2002), as post-war director of the Whitechapel Art Gallery, was the most artistically influential British curator of his time. This emerges clearly from a new book to which I have contributed the foreword, Michael Sandle: Works on Paper. It was published ahead of the artist's 88th birthday on May 18-through the initiative of writer and curator Jon Wood, formerly of the Henry Moore Institute, and with support from the Isle of Man Arts Council-and comes 22 years after my own The Sculpture of Michael Sandle. Mr Wood devotes the book, adeptly designed by Peter McGrath, to 250 drawings, watercolours and prints, with explanatory captions by the sculptor.
At the outset of his career, Prof Sandle vowed to try to make at least one monumental masterpiece every decade. Described by art historian Marco Livingstone as a 'radical traditionalist', he has fulfilled his ambition, despite the efforts of commissioning committees a task he has called 'like climbing Everest on a pogo stick'. He is famed abroad to an exceptional extent for an English artist and has spent a fair part of his career overseas, especially in Germany,
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Tales as old as time
By appointing writers-in-residence to landscape locations, the National Trust is hoping to spark in us a new engagement with our ancient surroundings, finds Richard Smyth
Do the active farmer test
Farming is a profession, not a lifestyle choice’ and, therefore, the Budget is unfair
Night Thoughts by Howard Hodgkin
Charlotte Mullins comments on Moght Thoughts
SOS: save our wild salmon
Jane Wheatley examines the dire situation facing the king of fish
Into the deep
Beneath the crystal-clear, alien world of water lie the great piscean survivors of the Ice Age. The Lake District is a fish-spotter's paradise, reports John Lewis-Stempel
It's alive!
Living, burping and bubbling fermented masses of flour, yeast and water that spawn countless loaves—Emma Hughes charts the rise and rise) of sourdough starters
There's orange gold in them thar fields
A kitchen staple that is easily taken for granted, the carrot is actually an incredibly tricky customer to cultivate that could reduce a grown man to tears, says Sarah Todd
True blues
I HAVE been planting English bluebells. They grow in their millions in the beechwoods that surround us—but not in our own garden. They are, however, a protected species. The law is clear and uncompromising: ‘It is illegal to dig up bluebells or their bulbs from the wild, or to trade or sell wild bluebell bulbs and seeds.’ I have, therefore, had to buy them from a respectable bulb-merchant.
Oh so hip
Stay the hand that itches to deadhead spent roses and you can enjoy their glittering fruits instead, writes John Hoyland
A best kept secret
Oft-forgotten Rutland, England's smallest county, is a 'Notswold' haven deserving of more attention, finds Nicola Venning
