LONDON-CASS FOUNDATION SCULPTURE PLANS 2012

LONDON. Exhibition Road, home to the South Kensington museums, is to be lined with ten new and recent sculptures by UK artist Tony Cragg during the 2012 summer Paralympic Games.

The scheme to take over the pedestrianised thoroughfare is led by the Cass Sculpture Foundation, a charitable trust that commissions and sells monumental work on display at its 26-acre estate at Goodwood, near Brighton.
“As a partner of the Cultural Olympiad, we have been working on the Exhibition Road project for the past two years with the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea,” says entrepreneur and philanthropist Wilfred Cass, who established the foundation in 1992. ( Right, Photo of Tony Cragg, Sculptor-www.tony-cragg.com. View a video of on Cragg’s work, click here.)

In another significant move, culture minister Ed Vaizey has expressed interest in the unique funding model of the foundation. Ahead of the 20 October comprehensive spending review, the politician was no doubt keen to discover how the organisation has survived without receiving any funding from state-backed bodies such as Arts Council England.
“The charity’s simple business model effectively means that no outside funding is necessary,” says Cass. “The overheads of the foundation are paid for in full by admission charges and events.” Ed Wilde, technical director at the foundation, says: “When a piece by a particular artist is sold, we will commission another work from them using the foundation’s half of the proceeds. This effectively means that the artists will benefit from 100% of the net profit of a sale, even though the contractual fee is 50/50.”

The sculpture park attracts about 18,000 visitors a year, who pay £10 each to enter. Major sales recently have been to foreign collectors such as Portuguese billionaire José Berardo.

“People find it difficult to understand that a charity can also be commercial but isn’t this the kind of scheme favoured by the current government? With institutions such as the arts council and museums throughout the country facing major cuts, we see our role as working more closely with these bodies,” adds Cass.

 

 

 

VITAL FACTS ABOUT THE CASS SCULPTURE FOUNDATION

The Cass Sculpture Foundation has won a broad international reputation by carefully honing its expertise in the commissioning and sale of large-scale sculpture from the finest British artists.

Profits from all sales are split equally between the artist and the foundation to date we have displayed over 440 new sculptures and have provided an internationally renowned platform for a significant number of British sculptors.
We are now extending our visibility and international profile by planning a major series of events outside of Goodwood.

 

 

Tsvetana Yvanova

Editor,The Art Chronicle

Philip King, Award Winning Sculptor

Congratulations To  Mr.Phillip King on His Award!

Phillip King was born in Tunisia in 1934, arrived in England in 1945, and studied modern languages at Cambridge University from 1954 to 1957. He began to make sculpture during his time at university and from 1957 to 1958 studied sculpture at St Martin’s School of Art, where Anthony Caro was teaching. King taught at St Martin’s for a year before working as an assistant to Henry Moore, where he gained experience working on a larger scale.

In 1964 King had his first of many solo exhibitions at the Rowan Gallery. He also had several solo shows in America in the 1960s. He established a major reputation in both group and solo shows in Britain and overseas using a variety of materials from fibreglass and metal through to wood and slate. He has had several retrospective exhibitions, including one at the Whitechapel Art Gallery (1968) and at the Hayward Gallery (1981). He was commissioned to create work for Expo ’70 in Tokyo. Further retrospectives of his work were held at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 1997, and at Forte de Belvedere, Florence in 1997. King was only the second English sculptor to be given this honour, the first being Henry Moore.

Phillip King was a Trustee of the Tate Gallery from 1967 to 1969. He taught at St Martins School of Art from 1959 until 1980, and was Professor of Sculpture at Hochschule der Künste, Berlin (1979-80). He was Professor of Sculpture at the Royal College of Art, London from 1980 to 1990, and was made Professor Emeritus at the College in 1990. He went on to be elected Professor of Sculpture at the Royal Academy Schools, London in 1990, a post which he held until his election as President of the Royal Academy in 1999.

Recent solo exhibitions
2008 Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London
2007 Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London
2006 Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London
2003 Jesus College, Cambridge
2002 Place Gallery, Cavagnole, Italy
2001 Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London

More on Phillip King ________________________READ

Contact details for further information
Email:  membershipoffice@royalacademy.org.uk

Tsvetana Yvanova, for The Art Chronicle