Viewing Phyllida Barlow Unscripted at Hauser & Wirth Somerset

The long late summer days are calling us to the freshness of the countryside: a few hours by train from London will take you to the picturesque village of Bruton, home to Hauser & Wirth Somerset. Alongside the glorious blooming wildflower gardens, and the enticing menu on offer at the resident restaurant, the current cultural offering is a solo exhibition devoted to the late, legendary Phyllida Barlow, who passed away last year aged 78.

This wonderful exhibition pays homage to the British sculptor, mother of five, and stalwart arts educator, who taught for four decades at the Slade – her former students are an illustrious group, and count Rachel Whiteread and Nairy Baghramian, Prem Sahib and Jessie Flood-Paddock among them. Barlow’s contributions to sculpture – as this exhibition, curated by Frances Morris, shows – were outstanding and astonishingly inventive, with a myriad ideas on how to present and make sculpture, with unconventional materials and arrangements in space, and a good deal of humour and heart.

unscripted also brings Barlow’s work full circle: it was at Hauser and Wirth Somerset ten years ago that Barlow put on her first solo exhibition with Hauser & Wirth, inaugurating their new galleries in the English countryside.