Artist of the day: Artist of the Day, June 22, 2022: Barry Flanagan OBE RA, an Irish-Welsh sculptor (#1602)

Barry Flanagan OBE RA (1941 – 2009) was an Irish-Welsh sculptor. He is best known for his bronze statues of hares and other animals.

Barry Flanagan was born in Prestatyn, in North Wales. From 1957 to 1958 he studied architecture at Birmingham College of Art and Crafts. He studied sculpture at Saint Martin's School of Art in London from 1964 to 1966, and from 1967 to 1971 taught both at Saint Martin's and at the Central School of Art and Design.

He became an Irish Citizen and lived in Dublin since 2000.

He was the subject of a biographical film by Peter Bach, The Man Who Sculpted Hares: Barry Flanagan, A Life.

Flanagan's hare statue Large Left-Handed Drummer was on display in Union Square (New York City) park from 18 February to 24 June 2007.

Flanagan's 1993 Large Mirror Nijinski, again with two hares, is displayed at the Skulpturen Park Köln, in Cologne.

Tate Britain held a retrospective show Early Works 1965–1982 from September 2011 to January 2012. This exhibition contained many examples of his less well known pieces using materials such as cloth and rope, as well as some of the early bronze hare sculptures for which he became famous.

At an exhibition held by Sotheby's at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire, in September–October 2012, fifteen of Flanagan's works were shown in a parkland setting. They included Large Nijinski on Anvil Point and Nijinski Hare, placed at opposite ends of the Canal Pond.

Flanagan donated a bronze horse statue, San Marco Horse, to Jesus College, Cambridge in 2009. Prior to this, it had been on exhibition in the college since 1988.

Barry Flanagan established the estate during the last year of his life following his diagnosis with Motor Neuron Disease. It was his intention that his work continue to be exhibited and that resources, including his archived papers and a library of his books, be made available to researchers and enthusiasts alike.

The estate believes in the significance of Flanagan’s work and is dedicated to a full exploration of his artistic practice and its contributions to visual culture with the aim of inspiring and enabling others to do the same.

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