Phyllida Barlow, “kept her fans and followers on the edge of their seats”, according to Frances Morris – becoming yet more ambitious and audacious with her sculptures in the last decade of her career. The venerated British artist, who died last year, aged 78, left an incomparable legacy – not only through her work, but also through her teaching (the likes of Rachel Whitehead and Angela de la Cruz were among those she trained at the Slade during her long academic career at the school, until she retired in 2009).

Barlow created works that wowed in scale but were somehow not monumental – using everyday, ordinary materials that could be easily obtained or identified – cheap and readily available items like cardboard, scrim, plaster and plywood frequently made their way into her work. Restless and endlessly playful, her sculptures could take almost any form; bursting and bustling with energy, filling rooms, jutting from the ceiling or sprouting unexpectedly from the ground.

This work, untitled: canvasracks, 2018-2019 appeared in Barlow’s acclaimed exhibition cul-de-sac at the Royal Academy in 2022. A continuation of the flurry of colours Barlow introduced to the British Pavilion for her 2017 presentation at the Venice Biennale, the sculpture comprises brightly coloured, thick canvas sheets, made to look as though chucked casually over metal supports, anchored precariously in heavy, austere concrete supports that seem to counterbalance the casual gesture made by the canvas. It epitomises Barlow’s brilliant insouciance as a sculptor.

An exhibition celebrating Barlow’s work, unscripted, curated by Morris, is on view at Hauser & Wirth Somerset until 5 January, 2025. “There’s something about walking around sculpture that has the possibility of being reflective, like walking through a landscape,” Barlow has said. “The largeness of sculpture has that infinite possibility to make one engage beyond just the object itself and into other realms of experience.”