Nigel Hall, Little Ghost, Edition of 2, 2022, Bronze (Green,) 35 x 32 x 10 cm. © Nigel Hall, image courtesy of Colin Mills, London
In spite of the enormous size of some of these works, or the sheer weight of the material he uses, the sculptures give the appearance of lightness, of dynamism – sometimes even fragility.
On display in the exhibition Spring Turning is the entire repertoire that Hall uses in his art – from sculptures to paintings to drawings. Works from 2012 will be on show alongside new works from 2024. In this most recent group of works, Hall has devoted himself to the expressive possibilities of ellipses seen from different perspectives.
Finding inspiration for his abstract works in landscapes or natural phenomena, Hall may take wave-shaped hills, the outlines of treetops or the simple interplay of light and shadow as the starting point for his works. He then translates these impressions into a reduced language of geometric images. As he explains about his sculpture After the Storm:‘The title After the Storm alludes to the stillness and silence pertaining after the noise and drama of the storm has died away, Sturm und Drang. This birch plywood wall sculpture uses the circle and ellipse to create a centrifugal composition of balanced energy. At the centre of the work is an empty ellipse set at the heart of a circular shape like a ripple in calm water. The potential of circular and elliptical forms, coupled with conical geometry, is used in this work to emphasize apparent spatial depth.”
Born in 1943, Nigel Hall is one of the most renowned contemporary British artists. His works can be found in numerous international museums and private collections such as the Tate Gallery in London (UK), the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin (Germany), the National Museum of Art in Osaka (Japan), the Museum of Modern Art in New York (USA) and the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris (France).In London, he has been an instructor at the Royal College of Art and head of the Sculpture Faculty at Chelsea College of Art and Design. In 2003 he was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Art. In 2017 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from University of the Arts in London.
Galerie Andres Thalmann is extremely pleased to present the works of Nigel Hall with this solo exhibition in Paris.
