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An exhibition of striking stone carvings
Sponsored by the Ingleby Gallery and T.H. Enterprises
Emily Young is widely considered to be one of the finest
direct stone carvers in this country.
Her beautiful sculptures have a timeless quality, blending
a highly contemporary approach with a venerable classical
tradition. Her subject matter focuses on heads of warriors,
poets and angels, and large torsos. She works with the stone
to let the intrinsic qualities of the material emerge. Some
areas are left uncarved and unpolished, giving a dramatic
sense of the raw material. Some works seem deliberately unfinished
or broken, giving them an archaeological quality, as if recovered
from an ancient site.
Young works in a wide range of stone, from milky Carrera
marble, smooth alabaster and black Morrocan marble, to blue-veined
Purbeck marble and weathered Portland stone, bringing out
the natural qualities of the materials.
For this exhibition, Emily Young exhibits around 20 new,
large scale works, displayed in the Berberis Dell, a secluded
but accessible glade in the Gardens.
Emily Young comes from a family of artists and writers.
Her grandmother was the sculptor, Kathleen Scott, a pupil
of Rodin and widow of the explorer Captain Scott of the Antarctic.
Born in London in 1951, she spent much of her youth in Italy,
before returning to study at Chelsea and St Martin’s.
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| Photos by Peter Bennett |
Among her fans is writer Louis de Bernieres, who wrote of
her work:
"Emily Young’s work is characterised by the highly
individual way in which it combines strength with gentleness.
Her sculptures are massive, but their contours are rounded,
as if moulded by a lover’s hand, rather than chiselled
out by steel. Their curves are akin to those of the South
Downs of England, which seem to be constructed of the limbs
of sleeping giants, of their hips, thighs, shoulders and breasts."
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