Article from www.culturevulture.co.uk on Hermann Obrist at the Henry Moore Institute The Headrow, Leeds Yorkshire England

(all information taken from www.culturevulture.co.uk)

" I’ve always loved walking into the Henry Moore Institute.  I guess I’m a bit of a child at heart and the tunnel like entrance corridor and long sweeping steps compel me to run up them.  I could already see quite a crowd of people in the reception area all chatting away and enjoying some wine so I quickly curbed that urge and walked sensibly in.  Everyone was here to check out the preview of the Hermann Obrist installation.  Obrist was made famous as an Art Nouveau sculptor and the Henry Moore Institute is now exhibiting pretty much every surviving piece of his 3D work as well as a prolific collection of his sketches, letters and photographs.

The sculpture certainly stood out for me, ranging from the photos of his solid and permanent mausoleums (mausolea?) to the flowing serpentine forms of his other work.  Each individually gives you an insight into the head of a man who quite clearly was very in touch with the fantasy world he conjured up in his mind.  The fountains and diorama seem picked straight from his other world and it is easy to see how his portfolio has influenced a lot of artists since he began working.  The sketches in particular offer insight into how his work progressed; you get a very visual representation how his designs grew from paper to plaster so to speak.

It was really quite interesting to see such a wide range of people there for the preview as well.  HMI has employed a lot of young artists from Leeds and is one of the only art galleries in Leeds that dedicates itself to showing modern art and you can see this in the crowd.  There was a good mix of people there to enjoy the free wine and to chat about the treats in the gallery.  I didn’t realise the exhibition is accompanied on the Mezzanine Gallery by the series of photo sculptures by Alina Szapocznikow.  An apparently improbable series of ‘natural’ forms made from chewing gum and caught for posterity in black and white photographs.  I’ll have to pop back to get a cheeky look at those soon.

I think this retrospective really does highlight how wide Obrists range was and how beautiful and intricate his work is.  The exhibition is at the Henry Moore Institute now and until the 29^th of August and the gallery is open daily 10am – 5.30pm and until 9pm on Wednesdays.  Admission is FREE. "