Phyllida Barlow · 2014
Untitled: Grinder
Acrylic on watercolour paper
24 × 32 cm / 9 1/2 × 12 5/8 inches
Joseph Clark Collection
Phyllida Barlow
Overview
This work is a study drawing for Grinder, presented in Phyllida Barlow: GIG at Hauser & Wirth Somerset in 2014. Even at the scale of a drawing, it holds Barlow's remarkable ability to make weight, instability, and momentum feel inseparable.
Why it matters
Barlow was one of the most important British sculptors of her generation. Her forms were built from everyday materials and often resisted permanence, holding onto something provisional, fragile, and quietly precarious.
Context
The drawing was later exhibited in Phyllida Barlow: unscripted, curated by Frances Morris at Hauser & Wirth Somerset from 2024 to 2025. That posthumous survey unfolded across six decades of making, allowing Barlow's iterative language of chance, collapse, and reconstruction to emerge at full scale.
Collection context
- Study drawing for Barlow's installation Grinder.
- Exhibited in Phyllida Barlow: unscripted, Hauser & Wirth Somerset, 2024 to 2025.
- Courtesy: Hauser & Wirth and The Joseph Clark Collection.
- © The Phyllida Barlow Estate.
Editorial framing
What draws Joseph Clark to the work is that tension between apparent structure and inevitable erosion. The drawing captures a moment of thinking, testing, and constructing something that may or may not hold.
Image notes
- Untitled: Grinder (2014), acrylic on watercolour paper. Photo: Alex Delfanne.
- Installation view, Phyllida Barlow: unscripted, Hauser & Wirth Somerset, 2024 to 2025. Photo: Ken Adlard.
- Installation view, Phyllida Barlow: GIG, Hauser & Wirth Somerset, 2014. Photo: Ken Adlard.