Exhibition catalogue. Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven / Arnolfini, Bristol / Serpentine Gallery, London, 1977–1979. Curated by Rudi Fuchs.
The catalogue for Barry Flanagan’s landmark travelling retrospective, tracing a decade of early sculptural work made between 1966 and 1976. The exhibition opened at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven in June 1977, travelled to the Arnolfini in Bristol, and closed at the Serpentine Gallery in London in 1979.
This copy contains an unusual survival. Tucked inside — still stapled together — are two typewritten sheets on Van Abbemuseum letterhead: the official Dutch-language catalogue list from the Eindhoven presentation, dated 10 juni tot en met 10 juli 1977. A working document, not meant to travel. It lists every work in the show — FPRE SU ’65, SAND MUSLIN ’66, HEAP 1 ’68, PILE ’68, DREAM OF MARBLE ’75 — with materials noted in Dutch (gaas, doek, gips, mousseline, zand, Hornton-steen, gekerfd) and dimensions in inches. Institutional provenance scattered throughout: Tate Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum, Art and Project Amsterdam, Prof. P. Sanders Schiedam.
Flanagan in this period was working with muslin, sand, hessian, canvas, resin, glass, aluminium, polyester — everyday materials handled with deliberate looseness, where the gesture of making was as present as the object itself. These are the works that precede the bronze hares. The conceptual groundwork, before the iconography took over.
Rudi Fuchs understood what he was looking at. The catalogue reflects that — spare, serious, no excess.
Condition: good. Some toning to pages consistent with age. The inserted typewritten sheets are intact and legible, with light show-through from the reverse side. A genuinely unusual survival.
