A treat for all the senses at Neagu exhibition

Rebecca Land looks at work by Paul Neagu at the Henry Moore Institute as part of the Palpable Sculpture Exhibition.

More than 100 pieces of sculpture, drawings, films, archive material and texts - much of which have never been displayed before - are exhibited across three galleries at the Henry Moore Institute.

The institute’s head of sculpture studies, Lisa Le Feuvre, curated the exhibition. She said Neagu’s approach was very similar to that of Henry Moore, in that they both believed art, and the world, should be something that is experienced by the whole body - not just the eyes.

“Neagu believed we should use sounds, smells, taste and touch - not just the eyes - and he even wrote a manifesto demanding that we used all our senses to look at the world,” she said.

Works by Paul Neagu at the Henry Moore Institute as part of the Palpable Sculpture Exhibition

“Paul Neagu is an essential figure in art history, and we’re thrilled to bring this exhibition - the most significant of his work in this country since the 1970s - to Leeds.”

It was when travelling to Britain in 1969 from his home in Romania that Neagu wrote his Palpable Art Manifesto, announcing that “palpable art is a new joy for the ‘blind’, while for the ‘clear-sighted’ it is the most thoroughly three-dimensional study.”

Ten years later his work was included in the very first British Art Show - which is organised every five years and this year comes to Leeds Art Gallery.

He taught at London’s Hornsey School of Art and then at the Royal College of Art, teaching some of Britain’s most successful sculptors, including Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor and Rachel Whiteread.