John Hoyland: Imaginary Beings
Study Gallery, Henry Moore Institute
22 November 2024 – 16 March 2025
Free entry
Born in Sheffield in 1934, John Hoyland achieved international recognition as an abstract painter, known for his powerful large-scale images, full of energy and feeling. In 1994, in the lead-up to his sixtieth birthday, he made his only mature group of sculptures. Working at the Royal College of Art in London, he produced around 25 ceramic works, which he described as “these mad little hybrids”. A new display at the Henry Moore Institute, Imaginary Beings, will focus on this body of work, bringing together a selection of four sculptures that will be shown in conversation with four related paintings.
Brightly coloured and loaded with creatureliness, Hoyland enjoyed the “freedom” of working with ceramics and “the possibility of introducing irony and even humour” into his art. The ceramics are an outcome of a change Hoyland made to his painting about a decade earlier. In the early 1980s, he turned away from the transatlantic High Modernism with which he had made his name, and sought a more wide-ranging, less abstract art, with imagery often inspired by his travels around the world, particularly to Bali and the Caribbean.
This display coincides with the presentation of the touring exhibition, These Mad Hybrids: John Hoyland and Contemporary Sculpture at Millennium Galleries, Sheffield Museums, from February – May 2025. Until this exhibition, Hoyland’s ceramics had not been exhibited since 1994, the year they were made.
Main image: John Hoyland, Sorcerer 1994. Courtesy The John Hoyland Estate.
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Notes to editors
John Hoyland
John Hoyland (1934-2011) was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire. He studied at Sheffield College of Art (1951-56) and the Royal Academy Schools, London (1956-60)
He had retrospectives at the Serpentine Gallery (1979-80), the Royal Academy of Arts, London (1999) and Tate St Ives (2006).
In 1982 he won the John Moores Painting Prize, and was elected as a member of the Royal Academy in 1983. He won the Athena Art Award in 1987. In 1988 he curated the Hans Hoffman Exhibition at the Tate Gallery. In 1991 Hoyland was elected as Royal Academician, and in 1999 was appointed Professor of Painting at Royal Academy Schools.
The ceramics in Imaginary Beings were commissioned by CCA Galleries, London and shown in May 1994. Hoyland wrote a statement for a small pamphlet which accompanied the exhibition:
“I was never really drawn to Renaissance Art – my secret loves were the archaic world and the arts of other cultures, Egyptian, Indian, Polynesian and African, which were largely considered to be “Primitive Art” until this century. Many of these influences were absorbed by the Modern Masters, Picasso, Matisse and Brancusi during the 1920s.
“I had not touched three-dimensional ceramics since I was seven years old until I began this group of work at the Royal College of Art this year. After my initial optimism at the “idea” of the project I began to realise that it was harder than it looked, but guided and encouraged by David Harrison we produced this group of work. It’s too early for me to gauge how I feel about it. What I really enjoyed was the freedom to “try anything”, the unexpected results with some of the colour, and also to indulge in the possibility of introducing irony and even humour into these mad little hybrids.”
John Hoyland, 1994
These Mad Hybrids: John Hoyland and Contemporary Sculpture
These Mad Hybrids: John Hoyland and Contemporary Sculpture presents Hoyland alongside a diverse selection of contemporary sculpture. Artists included: Caroline Achaintre, Eric Bainbridge, Phyllida Barlow, Olivia Bax, John Hoyland, Hew Locke, Anna Reading, Jessi Reaves, Andrew Sabin, John Summers and Chiffon Thomas.
The exhibition was curated by Olivia Bax, Sam Cornish and Wiz Patterson Kelly. It was on display at the Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, February – May 2024, and will tour to Millennium Galleries, Sheffield Museums, February – May 2025.
These Mad Hybrids is accompanied by a standalone publication of the same title, published by Ridinghouse and Slimvolume. Essays by Olivia Bax, Sam Cornish. Foreword by Andrew Hunt; contributions by James Fisher and Hannah Hughes.
Olivia Bax was a Visiting Research Fellow at Henry Moore Institute in 2023, in the lead up to These Mad Hybrids, where she used the Sculpture Research Library and Archive of Sculptors’ Papers to research for the texts which accompany the exhibition.
About Henry Moore Institute
Henry Moore Institute welcomes everyone to visit their galleries, research library and archive of sculptors’ papers to experience, enjoy and research sculpture from around the world. The newly refurbished Institute can be found in the centre of Leeds, the city where Henry Moore (1898–1986) began his training as a sculptor. Their changing programme of historical, modern and contemporary exhibitions and events encourage thinking about what sculpture is, how it is made and the artists who make it.
As part of the Henry Moore Foundation, they are a hub for sculpture, connecting a global network of artists and scholars, continuing research into the art form and ensuring that sculpture is accessible and celebrated by a wide audience.
The long-established partnership of Leeds City Council and the Henry Moore Foundation began with the development of the Sculpture Study Centre in Leeds Art Gallery in 1982 and led to the development of the Henry Moore Institute in 1993. It now represents an unparalleled collaboration in the collection, study and presentation of sculpture. The Leeds Sculpture Collections lies at the heart of their work together, underpinned by the complimentary research and curatorial expertise of both organisations.
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About the Henry Moore Foundation
The Henry Moore Foundation was founded by the artist and his family in 1977 to encourage public appreciation of the visual arts.
Today we support innovative sculpture projects, devise an imaginative programme of exhibitions and research worldwide, and preserve the legacy of Moore himself: one of the great sculptors of the 20th century, who did so much to bring the art form to a wider audience.
We run two venues, in Leeds and Hertfordshire, showing a mix of Moore’s own work and other sculpture.
We also fund a variety of sculpture projects through our Henry Moore Grants and Research programmes and we have a world-class collection of artworks which regularly tour both nationally and internationally.
A registered charity, we award grants to arts organisations around the world, with a mission to bring great sculpture to as many people as possible.