Chronology

Key events in Flanagan’s career

1941
Born in Prestatyn, north Wales, 11 January.
1949
Attended Foxhunt Manor School, run by the Xaverian Brotherhood.
1953
Attended Mayfield College.
1957
Studied architecture and then switched to sculpture at Birmingham College of Art and Crafts until 1958.
1959
Worked in Beer, Devon as a boat hand then moved to Bristol doing a variety of jobs, including van driving, working in a bakery and labouring on building sites continued making sculpture.
1960
Moved to London and attended Anthony Caro’s Friday evening experimental classes at St Martin’s School of Art.
Visited Canada and worked on building sites in Montreal, returned to Bristol modelled clay heads of friends, made constructions and began writing concrete poetry.
1963
Married Sue Lewis, student at Old Vic Theatre School, Bristol Lived in Cambridge, Gloucestershire, and, as resident of the county, he received a grant to attend Saint Martin‘s School of Art, London.
1964
Began two-year Advanced Sculpture course at St Martin’s School of Art and modelled for life drawing classes.
Attends the retrospective exhibition of the work of Joan Miró at the Tate Gallery in London and shakes his hand at the private view.
1965
Daughter, Samantha, later known as Flan born.
Flanagan delivers his silent lip poem, O for orange, at the 2nd International Exhibition of Experimental Poetry at St Catherine’s College, Oxford.
1966
Graduated from St Martin’s with a distinction in the Vocational Diploma in Sculpture (Hons).
Opened his first solo exhibition at Alex Gregory-Hood’s Rowan Gallery.
With John Latham, Flanagan helped organised the Still and Chew party where students and tutors of St Martin’s chewed pages of Clement Greenberg’s book Art and Culture.
Participated, with Yoko Ono and Tony Cox, in Destruction In Art Symposium, organised by Gustav Metzger and John Sharkey at Africa Centre, Covent Garden.
1967
Daughter, Tara, born
Begins teaching weekly at Central School of Art and Crafts and also at Saint Martin‘s where he continues to teach until 1971.
Draws in classes at the Ballet Rambert, London.
1969
Two landmark group exhibitions for the situation of new art practices open. Flanagan exhibits works in When Attitudes Become Form: Works – Concepts – Processes – Situations – Information, at Kunsthalle Bern, which tours to Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld and the ICA in London and in Op losse Schroeven, at the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Amsterdam.
Flanagan’s first exhibition in a public institution opens at Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld. Site-specific work is exhibited.
First bronze work, a portrait of Emlyn Lewis, cast by Henry Abercrombie at Central School of Art and Crafts foundry.
First visit to New York for exhibition at Fishbach Gallery.
aaing j gni aa purchased by Tate Gallery, London.
Included in Land Art, Gerry Schum’s Video Gallery exhibition at Fernsehagalerie, Berlin, with the film A Hole in the Sea.
1970
First visit to Japan for Tokyo Biennale Between Man And Matter exhibition.
Flanagan makes five films, including sand girl and bollards project and produces first etchings.
1971
Participates in Artists’ Placement Group (APG) INNO’70 exhibition at Hayward Gallery, London.
Flanagan performs several pieces in the Art Spectrum, London exhibition at Alexandra Palace.
1972
Awarded Gulbenkian Foundation grant to work with the Strider dance group in London.
Flanagan commissioned to make site-specific work for Cambridge, as part of the Peter Stuyvesant Sculpture in the City Project.
1973
Went to Pietrasanta, Italy to work with stone carver Sem Ghelardini which was to become an ongoing collaboration.
1975
Produced group of ceramics and carved local stone.
1976
Became associated with Waddington and Tooth Galleries, London.
1977
Retrospective exhibition at Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, the Netherlands; toured in different format to Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, and Serpentine Gallery, London.
Produced first sheet metal sculptures.
1978
Imported three-ton stock of stone from Sem Ghelardini in Pietrasanta.
Made new metal piece at Brown and Tawse in east London; subsequently purchased by Ulster Museum, Belfast.
1979
Began bronze casting in London at A&A Sculpture Casting. There, he establishes a studio which he maintains throughout his life.
First Leaping Hare cast.
1980
First exhibition of bronzes.
Hare sculpture commissioned by City of Ghent Belgium to produce outdoor sculpture in steel.
Began studies for life-size bronze horse in tribute to the Horses of San Marco.
Sculpture Camdonian commissioned by Camden Borough Council, London.
1981
Produced first carvings in Sem Ghelardini‘s atelier, Pietrasanta.
Study visit to Washington DC to see Rodin exhibition at National Gallery of Art.
1982
Flanagan participates in Documenta 7 in Kassel.
Photographed by Lord Snowdon for Vogue Magazine.
Represented Britain at Venice Biennale with exhibition of stone and bronze sculptures 1973–1981, organised by British Council.
Produced illustrated broadsheet presenting Seamus Heaney’s translation from Middle English of The Names of the Hare.
1983
Interviewed by Melvyn Bragg for South Bank Show, London Weekend Television.
Major solo exhibition at the Pompidou Centre, Paris.
1984
Marble sculptures installed at Watlington Park, Oxfordshire.
Two bronze sculptures, Baby Elephant and Hare on Bell, installed at Equitable Life Tower West, New York.
Baby Elephant purchased by Art Institute of Chicago.
Horse and Cougar installed in grounds of Setagaya Museum, Tokyo.
1985
Sue Flanagan, the artist’s former wife, donates over one hundred of Flanagan’s etchings and linocuts to the Tate Gallery.
1986
Son, Alfred, born to Renate Widmann.
1987
Moved to Ibiza with Renate Widmann
Elected Associate of Royal Academy of Arts, London.
Large Boxing Hare on Anvil purchased by Baltimore Museum of Art.
1988
Daughter, Annabelle, born to Renate Widmann
Leaping Hare on a Crescent and Bell installed at Broadgate Centre, London.
1989
'Vizitor' commissioned for Les Halles, Paris
1990
Two bronze ‘leaping hare’ sculptures commissioned by Kawakyu Company, Osaka, Japan for main entrance to hotel.
The Sculler, a hare trophy based on Rodin‘s The Thinker, presented by artist to Jesus College Boat Club, Cambridge.
1991
Elected to Royal Academy of Arts and awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE).
1992
Visited Llorens Artigas Foundation, Gallifa, Spain.
Untitled, 1990 purchased by Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
Hare on Pyramid purchased by Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas, Venezuela.
1993
Major retrospective exhibition organised by Fundación la Caixa, Madrid, in collaboration with British Council; touring to Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes, in 1994.
1995
Large Mirror Nijinski, 1992 purchased by British Council, Madrid.
Ten monumental hare sculptures installed along the central reservation of Park Avenue, NYC.
1996
Horse, Mirrored (Cow Girls: Sheep Boys), 1995 donated to Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, Dublin.
The Cricketer, 1989, donated to Jesus College, Cambridge.
2000
Works from the Tate collection exhibited at Tate Liverpool.
2001
Barry Flanagan, Seeing Round Corners Opens at Waddington Galleries.
2002
Major retrospective exhibition opened at Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, Germany; touring to Musée d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain, Nice, in 2003
2004
Major retrospective exhibition opened at Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, Germany; touring to Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain, Nice, in 2003.
2005
Mini Retrospective opened at Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Gent.
2006
Exhibition at Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, in conjunction with an installation of ten sculptures on O‘Connell Street and Parnell Square in Dublin, organised by Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane.
2007
Left-Handed Drummer installed at Union Square, New York.
Made Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge.
2009
Died 31 August, Ibiza
2010
Three monumental sculptures are exhibited in the Courtyard of the Royal Academy.
Yorkshire Sculpture Park show Elephant (1986), Hare and Bell (1988) and Large Left-Handed Drummer (2006).
2011
A major retrospective Barry Flanagan: Early Works 1965–1982, at Tate Britain, London surveys the early part of Flanagan’s career.
2012
2012 Chatsworth House outdoor exhibition of fifteen bronze sculptures.
2014
Two Pataphysicians: Flanagan Miró, Waddington Custot, London.
2016
Barry Flanagan: Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Works 1964–1983, a survey of early works at Waddington Custot, London.
2017
Flanagan’s little-known early light works shown at &Model, Leeds, curated by Jo Melvin.
2018
Kröller-Müller Museum, Netherlands solo show.
2019
A major survey of over sixty works by Flanagan opens at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham.
Monumental sculptures by Flanagan are included in Amsterdam. Sculpture Biennial Artzuid 2019, Sculpture Milwaukee, and Frieze Sculpture, Regents Park London.
2020
Three bronze sculptures installed on Kasmin Gallery roof, NYC adjacent The High Line public park.
Waddington Custot, London opens Alchemy of the Theatre. The exhibition marks 50 years since Flanagan’s first solo exhibition at the gallery.
2021
Solo exhibition opens at von Bartha, Basel, the gallery having first held a solo exhibition of works by Flanagan in 1998.
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