Bill Woodrow
Encyclopedia
Bill Woodrow is a British
sculptor
.
Woodrow was one of a number of British sculptors to emerge in the late 1970s, the others including Richard Deacon and Tony Cragg
.
Woodrow's early work was made from materials found in dumps, used car lots and scrap yards, partially embedded in plaster and appearing as if they had been excavated. He went on to use large consumer goods, such as refrigerators and cars, cutting the sheet metal and allowing the original structure to remain identifiable, with the cut-out attached as if by an umbilical cord to the mother form. Collecting all manner of things, altering them and giving them a new context, allowed Bill Woodrow an element of narrative in his work.
In the 1990s, he began to make work in bronze, the stories remained, such as in a seminal work - In Awe of the Pawnbroker, 1994 - in which the meaning of the pawnbroker's symbol is unravelled. This sculpture has a number of elements that add up to what is virtually an installation. One of three artists selected to make a sculpture for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square for the year 2000, Woodrow chose to explore a recurring theme in his work, the destruction of our planet and the insistent strength of nature over man.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
sculptor
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
.
Woodrow was one of a number of British sculptors to emerge in the late 1970s, the others including Richard Deacon and Tony Cragg
Tony Cragg
Tony Cragg is a British visual artist specialized in sculpture. He is currently the director of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.-Early life:Cragg was born in Liverpool in 1949...
.
Woodrow's early work was made from materials found in dumps, used car lots and scrap yards, partially embedded in plaster and appearing as if they had been excavated. He went on to use large consumer goods, such as refrigerators and cars, cutting the sheet metal and allowing the original structure to remain identifiable, with the cut-out attached as if by an umbilical cord to the mother form. Collecting all manner of things, altering them and giving them a new context, allowed Bill Woodrow an element of narrative in his work.
In the 1990s, he began to make work in bronze, the stories remained, such as in a seminal work - In Awe of the Pawnbroker, 1994 - in which the meaning of the pawnbroker's symbol is unravelled. This sculpture has a number of elements that add up to what is virtually an installation. One of three artists selected to make a sculpture for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square for the year 2000, Woodrow chose to explore a recurring theme in his work, the destruction of our planet and the insistent strength of nature over man.
External links
- Billwoodrow.com
- Bill Woodrow at Sculpture.org.uk