Bronze and the Leaping Hare

Flanagan first began casting in bronze in the foundry at Central School of Art in 1969, run by sculptor Henry Abercrombie. This moment marked the beginning of a collaboration with Abercrombie, and the A&A foundry that Abercrombie went on to set up with Andy Elton. A relationship that continued when the foundry went on to become AB Fine Art Foundry.

Flanagan relished the whole process from armature to clay, to lost wax casting through to the emerging bronze and went on to regard the work of the foundry as central to his output.

It wasn’t until 1979 that Flanagan began to focus his practice more resolutely on the medium. He cast his first bronze leaping hare on 7 November, a motif in his work that was to become much loved.

It was also in 1979 that Flanagan visited an exhibition of the Horses of San Marco at the Royal Academy of Arts which made a deep impression on his thinking and approach to the medium.

The sheer tactile physicality of the ancient modelled horses created an aura and majesty. The varied patinas and gilding also provided substantial material to investigate the properties of bronze and the exhibition catalogue included essays on ancient casting methods and techniques.

In 1981, fifteen years after his first solo exhibition, Flanagan opened his first show devoted solely to works in bronze at Waddington Galleries, in Mayfair, London.

A year later Flanagan was invited to Documenta 7, Kassel and showed ‘Large Leaping Hare’.  He continued to exhibit this work later that same year when he represented Britain at the Venice Biennale. an exhibition that primarily focused on his work in bronze.

Use our interactive collections map HERE to see where a wide range of Flanagan’s bronzes can be visited in public, many of which are considered landmarks.