27 Facts About Phyllida Barlow

Phyllida Barlow studied at Chelsea College of Art and the Slade School of Art.

Phyllida Barlow joined the staff of the Slade in the late 1960s and taught there for more than forty years.

Phyllida Barlow retired from academia in 2009 and in turn became an emerita professor of fine art.

Phyllida Barlow had an important influence on younger generations of artists; at the Slade her students included Rachel Whiteread and Angela de la Cruz.

Phyllida Barlow studied at Chelsea College of Art under the tutelage of George Fullard who was to influence Barlow's perception of what sculpture can be.

Whilst studying at Chelsea, Phyllida Barlow met her husband, the artist and writer Fabian Benedict Peake, the son of Mervyn Peake, author of Gormenghast, and his wife the artist and memoirist Maeve Gilmore.

Phyllida Barlow later attended the Slade School of Fine Art from 1963 to 1966 to further study sculpture.

Phyllida Barlow found an interest in everyday, convenient materials like cardboard, polystyrene, scrim, and cement and how she could create abstracted pieces of work that placed a sense of elevated meaning to them.

Phyllida Barlow believed that art schools placed too big an emphasis on a particular 'model' of how to be an artist.

In 2018 and 2019, Phyllida Barlow was 'provocateur' for the Yorkshire Sculpture international.

Phyllida Barlow played with mass, scale, volume and height which creates a tension to her forms.

Phyllida Barlow's forms give the impression of being both excruciatingly heavy and light as air simultaneously.

Phyllida Barlow did not hide her process and material choices from the viewer, she exposed each detail.

Best known for her colossal sculptural projects, Phyllida Barlow employed "a distinctive vocabulary of inexpensive materials such as plywood, cardboard, plaster, cement, fabric and paint" to create striking sculptures.

Phyllida Barlow was a prolific painter, yet even in this field she recognised they were "sculptural drawings".

Phyllida Barlow painted as part of her curriculum at the Chelsea College of Arts - where she was encouraged to practice by artist and sculptor Henry Moore - and carried on doing so throughout her life as an artist, accruing a vast archive of work.

Phyllida Barlow's work has been presented in solo exhibitions around the world.

In 2014, Phyllida Barlow was commissioned to create new work for the Duveen Galleries at Tate Britain, London.

Phyllida Barlow's work took over the gallery transforming it into an all consuming environment of bright matter.

In 2016, Phyllida Barlow presented a solo exhibition of new work at the Kunsthalle Zurich.

Phyllida Barlow was one of four artists to have been nominated for the inaugural Hepworth prize, the UK's first prize for sculpture, and hers was displayed at the Hepworth Wakefield starting in October 2016.

Phyllida Barlow initially planned for her installation of 41 'baubles' to be hanging from planks that jutted from facade of the pavilion but this vision had to be altered due to expense; they were ultimately displayed in a way that resembled lollipops.

Graham Sheffield, the Director Arts at the British Council at the time, wrote that Phyllida Barlow was selected for her "challenging and imposing sculptures" which unsurprisingly commanded a distinct and powerful presence at the 57th Biennale.

In 2019 the Royal Academy of Art hosted exhibition of a new collection of Phyllida Barlow's work entitled cultural-de-sac.

Phyllida Barlow's work was situated in the Gabrielle Jungels-Winkler Galleries.

Phyllida Barlow was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to the arts and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to art.

Dame Phyllida Barlow died on 12 March 2023, at the age of 78.