David Nash

Yorkshire Sculpture Park presents a rich and extensive exhibition of work by David Nash, tracing the evolution of the artist's forty year career and offering a vivid statement of his life's work. Sculpture, installation and drawings range across the Park and will include new monumental works for the Underground Gallery, a retrospective survey in Longside Gallery and contextual displays from the artist's archive alongside sculpture in the open air and a permanent outdoor commission.

The historic landscape of the Park is a fitting backdrop chosen by Nash, the culmination of a thirty-year relationship with YSP, for this unique survey. This is the largest exhibition to date by an internationally acclaimed artist who has developed an eloquent understanding of trees, working with their traits to create sculpture, installation, projects and related drawings.

The Underground Gallery will feature imposing new works, including huge redwood crags and large black eucalyptus spheres, which the artist has sourced in California. The expansive Longside Gallery will present a survey of retrospective work from the artist's and international collections. The Bothy Gallery will illustrate one of the artist's most celebrated projects, Wooden Boulder, a large piece of 200 year-old oak released into a stream in the Welsh mountains in 1978, whose journey is documented through drawing, film and photography. The Garden Gallery will show early drawings, photographs and artefacts which explore the development of his practice.

Nash explores the different properties of wood as an artistic material from early tower constructions, burnt twig charcoal drawings and growing works, most famously Ash Dome, planted in 1977. Significantly, Nash began to use the unseasoned wood of whole tree trunks and limbs after rediscovering forgotten pieces of timber that had continued to change without his intervention. This method celebrates the unique attributes of his chosen material as it continues to dry, warp and crack, changing in appearance long after the artist has finished shaping it. These works convey a wealth of expression, from enormous force to exquisite delicacy, produced by Nash's unique use of chainsaw and charring as well as natural drying.

The exhibition will be documented through a specially commissioned artist film by Pete Telfer, edited alongside archive footage, presenting a fascinating insight into the artist and his practice. There will also be a publication with texts by YSP Director Peter Murray, Dr Sabine Schlenker, Ben Tufnell, Annie Proulx and the artist. The artist will also create three limited edition screenprints and a limited edition sculpture.

Exhibition generously sponsored by Roger Evans and supported by the Henry Moore Foundation.

David Nash

Ort: Yorkshire Sculpture Park