Artist Statement:
Olivia Musgrave was born in Ireland. With an Irish Father and and Greek Mother, the influence of both countries is readily discernible in her work. A love of horses and a deep understanding of ancient Greek myths characterise her work but possibly her greatest achievement has been the ability to bring these passions to life with a sharp and intelligent wit.

Olivia Musgrave trained at the City and Guilds Art School and has had numerous solo exhibitions in England, Ireland, South Africa and the United States. Major commissions, most recently for the Oxford University Business School, the Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind and the headquarters for Boots plc have attracted widespread press attention. Her next exhibition will be held at the gallery in November 2002.

Catalogue text:

The Greek myths are rooted in an instinctual, imaginative response to our natural surroundings. That is why all people respond so spontaneously to their many levels of truth. The stories carry levels of meaning which do not need to be explained. The Amazons, for example, are moon-led, as all women are. Amazons are sometimes thought of simply as female warriors. But in the old stories, they look at the moon, they are guided by it, they are its servants, in their triumphs and their sorrows. In the story of Europa, the cowherd girl who fell in love with Zeus, we find a sensual form of Annunciation. She loves the most masculine thing imaginable - a bull. She also gives herself, unwittingly, to her God, since Zeus, in order to win the girl has come disguised as a snow-white heifer.

Very many of Olivia Musgrave's sculptures bring these ancient stories to life once more. She makes wonderfully sensual Amazons, often sitting astride lithe vibrant horses. I tingle when I see these sculptures. They are profoundly mysterious. They capture the wistful religion of the Greeks, gazing sorrowfully at the moon. But these are also the work of an Irishwoman who knows horses, and has in every sense a feel for them. Olivia Musgrave's Greek and Irish ancestry draws out from the old stories potent images which speak to us very strongly. They are Amazons all right, as they raise their terrifying spears, or, when resting, as they recline their lovely heads. We could hear their blood-curdling war cries, but it would not much surprise us if these shrieks turned to a "View, halloo!" They might have originated on the shores of the Black Sea, but these Amazons owe kinship to Somerville and Ross. Likewise, Olivia's cows and bulls have the numinous qualities of Zeus as the snow-white heifer, but they never lose their truly bovine natures. We are down in the farm, but stretching towards a mythological heaven.

Classical sculpture has a very ancient lineage. Olivia Musgrave draws not only on the traditional subject matter of antique Greek sculpture, but also on the neo-classical explorations of the twentieth century masters, especially Marino Marini. Yet I never feel that her work is other than her own. Like all considerable artists, Olivia Musgrave "makes it new". She has a tangible joy in the actual craft of sculpture. Her statues, large or small, have all been touched with love. You can tell that she enjoys handling matter, and fashioning it into pleasing shapes. Her work is extremely tactile. I instinctively stroke those works of hers which I am lucky enough to own. The old Oxford Ox which she made for the plinth opposite the railway station is the sturdiest possible reminder to the tourists and academics when they step off to see the Dreaming Spires, that they are arriving at a market town with a cattle market.

In all the work, large and small, there is an intensity of emotion which is palpable. Europa is never still with her bull in Olivia's repeated renditions of this myth. She is falling, tumbling, headlong into ecstatic love. Eurydice gazes with heartbreaking love towards her man, knowing she is lost forever. The resting Amazon, with her hand behind her neck, is a thoughtful woman, almost a lovesick schoolgirl. Every sculpture catches us short, draws us up, makes us want to plumb its secret. What is she thinking? - we ask, not merely of the sculptures, but of the artist.

I think that the works of Olivia Musgrave are so successful because such questions are not answerable except in plastic terms. Rodin, asked to explain some sculpture, replied that if he was able to put into words what he had been trying to express, he would not have needed to go to the great labour of carving the doors of the Inferno. Sculpture is its own language. Of all the arts, however, it is often the coldest, and almost by definition the most static. What lifts Olivia Musgrave above her contemporaries into the ranks of true artists is her passionate intensity, her profound spiritual intelligence, her sensuality, all matched by consummate deftness and skill. She is still young. It will be fascinating to see how this work will develop - whether, for example, she will experiment with more abstract forms, or continue to give vibrant life to work in a representational tradition. Perhaps both. Either way, each new exhibition is something to be eagerly awaited, exciting us for the future, but also reminding us of what an impressive body of work this consummate artist has already produced.


A. N. Wilson, 2004



Introduction to 2002 exhibition catalogue:

Olivia Musgrave's studio is an upper floor unit of a block in West London shared by artists and designers. I was there last week, not to visit her studio but to see the sculptures being photographed on another floor of the same building. Most of the work intended for this exhibition had been finished and because the casting had taken place at a foundry in East London, for the last month much of her time had been spent over there. One of the largest sculptures, `As One', was still being cast and as it would not be ready in time for the catalogue she suggested we go and have a look what remained of the original model. This stood in the centre of her studio and after only a few weeks since it had been finished, the clay was already dried out with long cracks opening up across the surface. As soon as the preparations for the exhibition are over, she will break up what is left of the clay and then dismantle the metal armature for the next large project. Yet even in this state it was an extraordinarily beautiful object. Indeed, all around the room, on every available surface were gathered together other crumbling clay models, still recognisable parts from the finished bronzes being photographed upstairs, each one dried up, the metal supports visible through the dusty clay surface. Apart from one life-size sculpture of an ox (so large it had to be made at the foundry), this horde of broken fragments was the residue of two and a half years labour.

Later that week I talked to Olivia about the many problems inherent in casting sculpture. In particular that special courage needed by the sculptor to embark on a technique that requires them to destroy their work at different stages as they progress to the finished bronze. Sculpting, she admits, is not an occupation she finds particularly enjoyable; it is certainly not pleasurable in the way a painter might enjoy the act of painting. Bringing a sculpture to completion - particularly the larger commissions such as the Ox and `As One' - is a continuous battle to solve physical and technical problems as much as it is to solve artistic ones. In many ways the enjoyment she derives from her work comes only when the work is finally cast. Yet in spite of all these difficulties she never allows these technical challenges to compromise the personality which is so evident in every sculpture. She has an extraordinary eye for detail and, that rarest of things in sculpture, a brilliant and subtle wit. Knowing the extent of the struggle she faces making sculpture, the natural ease of her finished pieces is her greatest achievement.


LOST WAX BRONZE CASTING:

The initial sculpture is built in clay or plaster over a steel support, called the armature. When finished, the clay sculpture is bound in latex to create a mould and this mould will be used to make an individual wax impression for each sculpture in the edition. Though the wax will be an identical replica of the original clay sculpture it need not dictate the appearance of the finished bronze. Wax is ideally suited for making small adjustments to the sculpture and adding finer details; unlike clay which must always be kept damp, the wax will keep indefinitely allowing for more unhurried alterations (Degas' sculptures, for instance, were kept in wax during his lifetime and only cast after his death). Of course, when cast into bronze any changes that had been made to the wax replica will be unique to that particular edition, yet this stage does offer a valuable opportunity to refine each piece and is an important aspect of Olivia Musgrave's working process.

Due to the cost involved, it is usual to cast each sculpture in the edition as it is ordered with the first one referred to as the `artist's proof'. When the time comes, the wax sculpture is held in place by a tight fitting ceramic shell and heated so that the wax pours out through small channels (hence the term for this process being the `lost wax' technique). The void is then filled with molten bronze and allowed to cool. The ceramic shell is broken away leaving the bronze sculpture and this then requires chasing to remove the bronze channels and any seams. Bronze is naturally gold in colour, so the patina of the sculpture is caused by a chemical reaction using a variety of different recipes to create different effects: the green patina, for instance, being an oxidation of the copper in the bronze.

Each sculpture in this exhibition will be cast to order from an edition of nine (unless otherwise indicated) plus an artist's proof. The casting happens at Bronze Age Foundry in east London and takes up to six weeks to complete.