Plaster, paint, sand and shells
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/paule-vezelay-2103" aria-label="More by Paule Vézelay" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Paule Vézelay</a>
Garden
Lent from a private collection 2016
abstraction
animals: features
architecture
from recognisable sources
garden
garden structures
irregular forms
natural phenomena
non-representational
organic
sand
shell
<p><span>Garden </span>1935 is one of a small group of sculptures in plaster that Vézelay made in 1935<span> </span>using simple organic forms and incorporating natural objects. The forms of these sculptures were similar to those that she had used in her paintings of the 1930s such as <span>White Shapes in Movement </span>1930 (Tate L03890), extending these investigations of the relationship of form to space into three dimensions. <span>Garden </span>is constructed from two white biomorphic plaster shapes placed on top of each other, the lower shape closely recalling the central white form in <span>White Shapes in Movement</span>. The upper form in <span>Garden </span>is hollowed out and is shown in contemporary photographs installed in different ways, the central hollow containing sand, plants or seashells, and the lower form either bare or with shells, starfish and pebbles arranged on top of it. This flexibility in the natural objects that might be incorporated into the installation of the sculpture is reflected in the title <span>Jardinière</span> under which it was first exhibited at Galerie Jeanne Bucher in Paris in 1937, a ‘<span>jardinière</span>’ being an ornamental container in which to display plants. In a list of works compiled by Vézelay, the artist also described it as <span>Table ‘garden’ with sand</span> suggesting its informality in the context of a domestic environment.</p>
sculpture plaster paint sand shells
17 April 2017 – 5 November 2017
2017-11-05
17 April 2017 – 5 November 2017
2017-11-05
2017-04-17
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2017-04-17
Paule Vezelay
Collection based display
5 May 2022 – 4 September 2022
2022-09-04
5 May 2022 – 4 September 2022
2022-09-04
2022-05-05
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
1 October 2022 – 22 January 2023
2023-01-22
2022-10-01
Mead Gallery (Coventry, UK)
http://www.warwickartscentre.co.uk
2022-05-05
Radical Landscapes
Exhibition
7 October 2022 – 18 February 2024
2024-02-18
7 October 2022 – 18 December 2022
2022-12-18
2022-10-07
Mead Gallery (Coventry, UK)
http://www.warwickartscentre.co.uk
2022-10-07
Radical Landscapes
Loan-out
1 January 2025 – 31 March 2026
2026-03-31
1 January 2025 – 30 April 2025
2025-04-30
2025-01-01
Royal West of England Academy (Bristol, UK)
1 May 2025 – 30 September 2025
2025-09-30
2025-05-01
Towner (Eastbourne, UK)
http://www.townereastbourne.org.uk/
1 October 2025 – 31 March 2026
2026-03-31
2025-10-01
Leeds Art Gallery (Leeds, UK)
http://www.leeds.gov.uk/artgallery/
2025-01-01
Paule Vézelay: Living Lines
Loan-out
Garden
unconfirmed: 75 × 595 × 420 mm
Lent from a private collection 2016
<div class="text">
<p>
<i>Garden </i>1935 is one of a small group of sculptures in plaster that Vézelay made in 1935<i> </i>using simple organic forms and incorporating natural objects. The forms of these sculptures were similar to those that she had used in her paintings of the 1930s such as <i>White Shapes in Movement </i>1930 (Tate L03890), extending these investigations of the relationship of form to space into three dimensions. <i>Garden </i>is constructed from two white biomorphic plaster shapes placed on top of each other, the lower shape closely recalling the central white form in <i>White Shapes in Movement</i>. The upper form in <i>Garden </i>is hollowed out and is shown in contemporary photographs installed in different ways, the central hollow containing sand, plants or seashells, and the lower form either bare or with shells, starfish and pebbles arranged on top of it. This flexibility in the natural objects that might be incorporated into the installation of the sculpture is reflected in the title <i>Jardinière</i> under which it was first exhibited at Galerie Jeanne Bucher in Paris in 1937, a ‘<i>jardinière</i>’ being an ornamental container in which to display plants. In a list of works compiled by Vézelay, the artist also described it as <i>Table ‘garden’ with sand</i> suggesting its informality in the context of a domestic environment.</p>
<p>Vézelay began making these plaster sculptures at the same time as she started her <i>Lines in Space</i> series (see <i>Object in Three Dimensions: Feathers, Leaves, Fishing Flies etc.</i> 1935–6 [Tate L03889]) and with the same intention of extending her investigations of forms in space into three dimensions. She wrote: ‘It was in 1935 that I began making sculpture in <i>plâtre</i> [plaster], which increased my knowledge of form and its relation to space.’ (Notes from Paule Vézelay concerning the drawing <i>Forms</i> 1936, unpublished essay sent to Tate Gallery, 1975.) Shortly before making these works, Vézelay had written about abstraction in her paintings as a language which produced new forms from the imagination:</p>
<p class="cttext">
</p><blockquote>Of my own work I must say that I hope to give intense pleasure to the eye of the beholder, enticing his regard to remain on colours and forms more pleasing than can easily be found in actuality, or seen by his own unaided imagination. I hope this pleasure will prove a kind of music for the eyes, and may hold his regard long enough to convey what I am telling with this mysterious language of paint; since it is something that can only be painted.<br/>(Paule Vézelay, <i>Paris 1933</i>, unpublished text, Tate Archive TGA 9027/1/2/1.)</blockquote>
<p>Four of her plaster sculptures of 1935, including <i>Five Forms</i> (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/vezelay-five-forms-t07582" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T07582</span></a>), were exhibited at the Lefevre Galleries, London in February 1936, and five sculptures including <i>Five Forms</i> and <i>Garden </i>(entitled <i>Jardinière</i>) were exhibited in Paris at the Galerie Jeanne Bucher in March 1937. Unlike <i>Five Forms</i>, which was closely aligned with the concerns of Abstraction-Création in its pure white forms, <i>Garden</i> was closer to surrealist concerns around the found object. Its playful and unexpected juxtaposition of natural objects is reminiscent of surrealist sculpture, such as Eileen Agar’s (1899–1981) <i>Marine Object</i> 1939 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/agar-marine-object-t05818" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T05818</span></a>), and the juxtaposition of found objects and pure form in plaster and an informality and tactility in the way that the viewer interacts with the work is reminiscent of the small sculptures which Kurt Schwitters (1887–1948) made in the 1940s, such as <i>Red Wire Sculpture</i> (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/schwitters-red-wire-sculpture-t05767" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T05767</span></a>). </p>
<p>
<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Ronald Alley, <i>Paule Vézelay</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1983.<br/>Sarah Wilson, <i>Paule Vézelay/Hans Arp: The Enchantments of Purity</i>, exhibition catalogue, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds 1995, p.4.<br/>
<i>Paule Vézelay Retrospective Exhibition</i>, exhibition catalogue, England and Co., London 2004, p.16.</p>
<p>Emma Chambers<br/>June 2016</p>
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Summary
2018-07-05T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
abstraction animals: features architecture from recognisable sources garden garden structures irregular forms natural phenomena non-representational organic sand shell