Richard Deacon | Big Time | 2016

Richard Deacon is part of the post-war generation of British artists reacting to the now-classic works of Henry Moore, Sir Anthony Caro and Barbara Hepworth. Deacon, who calls himself a “fabricator,” is known for experimenting with a range of traditional and non-traditional fine art materials, from laminated wood, stainless steel, corrugated iron and polycarbonate to marble, clay, vinyl, foam and leather. Deacon embraces the material quirks of each to drive the form. 

In Big Time we can trace Deacon’s interest in juxtapositions: flat versus round, manufactured versus hand-applied. Gravity and time are Deacon’s partner in this piece, the blotches of purple paint dripping from each bulbous end and meeting in the middle of the lozenge-like forms. His forms are often playful, reminiscent of real objects in the world, but through scale and material, shifting how our bodies and minds respond to them.