Year 7 students visited the Yorkshire Sculpture Park earlier this month, as part of the Art school’s initiatives to take learning out of the classroom ensure broad experiences.
Year 7 pupil, Rose Dutton gave us her report of what happened during the day.
“As we arrived at the sculpture park and got out of the minibus, we could already see some amazing sculptures. From the simplest pieces of art such as a tree, to more complex pieces such as the large billboards which read, ‘EVERY SCHOOL SHOULD BE AN ART SCHOOL’ by Bob and Roberta Smith.
We began exploring the park and every piece of art in our path, I soon realised that every single one seemed completely different to the one before, but all were fascinating in their own way. One piece, ’Buddha’ by Niki de Saint Phalle, looked to have every colour imaginable on it, in different shapes, created with mosaic. When I moved around to the back of this wonderful sculpture, I was amazed at how strange it was. It appeared that a chair had been carved into the back of it. Within this was another mosaic of a beautiful landscape made out of shades of green, blue and yellow – it looked amazing!
We made a stop at the ‘Family of Man’ installation by Barbara Hepworth, nine sculptures representing the generations within a family. One of our tasks was to design a tenth sculpture for the series.
We split into two groups and my group we went into the Underground Gallery to visit the David Smith exhibition. The building was like a Tudor house with a modern twist. There was one long hallway with many rooms on either side; here we found many more art pieces on display, not just paintings.
As we entered these rooms, every single sculpture looked extremely odd but wonderful in the same way. They were so strange; I didn’t always understand what they were meant to be. We had to look at the materials that the sculptures were made of as well as the scale of the artwork. We also thought about what the artist may have used as inspiration for the abstract pieces.
Damien Hirst also has his work on exhibit in the park. His fibreglass sculpture of the ‘Virgin Mother’ is enormous, and a little strange. The pregnant woman’s skin has been peeled away on one side to reveal the baby inside her.
Finally, we saw work by Anthony Caro, Julian Opie, which were representations of humans in motion. Ai Weiwei and Sophie Ryder’s sculptures showed depictions of different animals, all were very fascinating.”
Head of Art, Helen Platt, said: “It’s so important to ensure our students have an opportunity to experience art in this way – it broadens horizons and helps pique interest in different types of media.”
