New City of London Sculpture Park Completed

A piece by the late Kenneth Armitage (1916-2002) completes the new Great St Helen's and Undershaft Sculpture Park in the City of London.

Screen with Folded Arms dates from 1967. The screen is almost 2m high and is made from painted aluminium. It stands outside Hiscox's offices at 1 Great St. Helen's.

Kenneth Armitage was born in Leeds and served with the Royal Artillery during WWII, he died in London in 2002. This work dates from a period of his life when he was living and working in Berlin.

He is quoted as saying "I like sculpture to look as if it happened, to express an idea as simply as possible." Armitoge also said that he always saw this work in an urban setting "two massive, heavy, rounded arms coming out of the wall, as though the building behind was the body of the person. with it's folded arms sticking out in front.". I think this engaging piece achieves his aims perfectly.

There are more details of his life from the Guardian's obituary here.

This work joins three others to complete the temporary sculpture park.

 Anish Kapoor's Sky Mirror, a previous post on this here.

Garden Pouf  by Franz West.

 Julian Opie's Three Men Walking

More on the project as a whole from a previous post here.

The author of this blog is a qualified City of Westminster Tour Guide who runs unique walking tours throughout Westminster, see tabs for details.

New Anish Kapoor in City of London

Anish Kapoor's Sky Mirror was unpacked last night and is on show from today.

 

The stainless steel mirror is nearly 3 metres across and stands in Aviva Court. It is the star attraction of the The Great St Helen's and Undershaft Sculpture Park, a link to a previous post on this here.

The concave side faces up towards the Lloyds and Willis buildings and the convex side faces down and back into the square.

The reflections are typically counter-intuitive, the Aviva building, behind the mirror, is reflected in its base, right side up, whilst the Lloyds bulding is reflected upside down at the top of the mirror. From the rear the square is made infinite by the mirror and individuals walking across it are rendered ant-like.

It is an object that has been engineered to perfection and its craftsmanship unassumingly demands a response. For me it makes the unfathomable vastness of our surroundings and our own individual insignificance in the grand scheme of things tangible in a most sublime manner.

London somehow now seems incomplete without an Anish Kapoor to enjoy. This piece is just the latest in a long line of fantastic temporary exhibits, I hope a central location can be found for something more permanent.

New Sculpture Park Unwrapped in The Square Mile

There is a lot of art being unpacked and unveiled this week in London.

Around St Helen's Bishopsgate, a new sculpture park is rapidly taking shape.

The first piece to be carefully unpacked today was this:

It is Garden Pouf by Austrian artist Franz West.

Next up came this:

It is Julian Opie's Three Men Walking.

The piece I am looking forward to seeing most was still in it's crate.

The crate contains Anish Kapoor's Sky Mirror 2010 which will stand in Aviva Square.

These first three pieces will soon be joined by Screen with Folded Arms by Kenneth Armitage.

The official unveiling isn't until the 14th of July but if you are in the area this week, I would recommend nabbing a sneak preview. What is more you can actually enjoy and photograph the pieces! There is none of the precious citing of "security implications" as at Regent's Place or Sheldon Square, see my previous moan here.

Congratulations to the City of London for facilitating this genuinely engaging little show.

The project is sponsored by Aviva, Hiscox, Gagosian Gallery, Lisson gallery, MTEC and New Art Centre, Roche Court,even British Land have decided to support this, they who forbid photography at Regent's Place!

The Sculpture Park will be in place up to 2012.

UPDATE: 4th July 2011 Anish Kapoor's Sky Mirror is now in place new post here.
UPDATE: 7th July 2011 Kenneth Armitage's piece is also in place, completing the park details here.