How we recreated Yorkshire artist Austin Wright's studio piece by piece at Thirsk Hall

"Austin Wright was born in Wales but he spent more than 30 years of his life in Yorkshire and taught the University of York,” explains Gallery Manager Catherine Duck. “We (Willoughby Gerrish) represent his estate which includes not only his amazing sculptures but original maquettes, moulds and archival material. The maquettes were not made to last so it is amazing that we have them, some even have some plaster and wax left on and so we can really see how Wright worked.”

The barn in Upper Poppleton which was his workshop recently got a Blue plaque and so, because of the wealth of archive material they had and the fact that Galley One was once a barn it would be fitting to recreate his workshop.

"He loved the barn and was fascinated by farming and with all the machinery which hung on the walls and he just left them there.” Wright had wrapped all his own artefacts up in newspapers from the 1980s and their are even receipts that he kept,” says Catherine.

"His son Crispin shared some photographs of how the workshop looked and we have tried to mimic the atmosphere although Wright was always moving things around. It was a really fun project to work on.”

The exhibition also includes his unique hanging sculptures from the beams in Gallery One as they were presented within his own studio.

“Wright worked in bronze, led and later in his life aluminium which is light and meant he was able to hang them from the walls which is what we have done at Thirsk Hall.”

Wright was born in Chester in 1911 and grew up in Wales, although he spent the majority of his life living in Upper Poppleton just outside of York.

He initially started his career as a teacher in 1934, instructing Modern Languages at The Downs School in Herefordshire where he lived with his colleague and friend the poet W H Auden. In The Sculpture of Austin Wright, James Hamilton notes that ‘Wright unavoidably became a wry observer of Auden’s love affairs, and also his confidante’, showing how progressive Wright was during a time when homosexuality was still criminalised.

"He was obviously quite liberal in his outlook.

“During this period Wright was also developing his own artistic practice, with his earliest surviving wood carving dated from 1939 and is a carving of an abstracted figure made from pinewood,” says Catherine. “He was interested in how wood split in the middle and included that split in many of his figurines, he called it the secret middle.”

A documentary called The Secret Middle (courtesy of the Yorkshire Film Archive), which was produced and directed by award-winning British screenwriter Harry Duffin in 1967 also forms part of the exhibition. This film follows Wright around his home in Upper Poppleton as he explains his process. Extracts from this documentary are played throughout the exhibition.

"It means people who visit the exhibition can hear Wright talking about his influences and life in Upper Poppleton in is own words,” says Catherine.

Wright’s sculpture became more widely recognised in the 1950s when he was commissioned by institutions such as Manchester City Council, Wakefield Cathedral and Derby Cathedral to create large-scale pieces.

The focus of his work was mainly figurative during this decade, focussing on individuals or small groups of people and abstracting the limbs and heads. In 1956 he was asked to participate in the touring British Council show Young British Sculptors alongside Robert Adams, Kenneth Armitage, Reg Butler, Lynn Chadwick, Robert Clatworthy, Hubert Dalwood, Elizabeth Frink, Bernard Meadows, Eduardo Paolozzi, Leslie Thornton and William Turnbull.

Wright was chosen by a prestigious selection committee to participate in the 1957 Säo Paulo Biennale in Brazil. The committee included some of the most influential curators, critics and writers of the period such as Roland Penrose, Sir Herbert Read, Sir John Rothenstein, and Lilian Somerville. The exhibition was titled Ten Young British Sculptors and featured many of the artists who had appeared in the earlier Young British Sculptors exhibition, with the additions of F. E. McWilliam, Leslie Thornton and Ben Nicholson. It was here that he was presented with the Richardo Xavier da Silveria Acquisition Prize for his sculpture The Argument.

In 1961 Wright was awarded the Gregory Fellowship for a term of three years at the University of Leeds, which caused a shift in his focus from the figurative sculptures he had been producing up to the 1950s to botanical forms.

This shift was largely due to his friendship with Professor Irene Manton who he met at the Botany department at the University. Manton not only had a wealth of knowledge about the interior structure of plants, which influenced Wright’s work greatly, but she was also a collector of art and antiquities. After her death, Manton donated her collection to the University of Leeds, which included examples from early Egypt, Greece and Cyprus but also of modern art from artists such as Pablo Picasso, Henry Moore and Joan Miró.

"Wright would have no doubt been influenced by the art and antiquities Manton collected as these were displayed throughout Botany House, where she worked while at the university,” says Catherine.

Wright’s teaching also took him to Bootham School, where he had earlier done teacher-training. He branched out into teaching art, adding The Mount to Bootham, and it was at The Mount that he met his wife Sue. He was a Quaker and a conscientious objector during the war.

Although Wright kept esteemed company and was recognised for his work, Catherine says he didn’t really receive the recognition he deserved.

"He loved it in Yorkshire and refused to move to London which might go some way to explaining why he didn’t quite get the recognition he deserved,” she says.

The exhibition at Thirsk Hall explores the two distinct themes of Wright’s work found in his figurative and botanical forms, through examples of his sculptures and works on paper. Much of the work is for sale.

Wright’s work is also held in collections including Tate; Arts Council; National Museum of Wales, Cardiff; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; University of Leeds, University of York. New College, Oxford and The Hepworth, Wakefield. He had major retrospectives at Wakefield, 1960; Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, 1974; Yorkshire Sculpture Park, 1984; Hull, 1988; and York Art Gallery, 2011.

Willoughby Gerrish is an independent art dealer and consultant, specialising in artworks from the Impressionist, Modern and Post-War periods, with a specific focus on sculpture. He also deals in a select group of established contemporary artists. The gallery holds a regular stock of paintings, sculptures, drawings and editioned works available to view at our Savile Row gallery, located in the heart of London’s art world, or in Thirsk, North Yorkshire.

In 2020, the gallery announced its representation for the estates of Michael Lyons (1943–2019) and Austin Wright (1911–1997) and will continue to offer a wide-ranging programme in promotion of each artist’s careers. In summer 2021 Willoughby Gerrish opened Thirsk Hall Sculpture Garden.

Austin Wright, Gallery One, Thirsk Hall Sculpture Garden until March 29, 2025. The Secret Middle documentary www.yfanefa.com/record/2048