How to buy garden sculpture that's an investment - and enhances your outdoor space
An art advisor explains why it's worth taking your time over that key piece of outdoor art
2 July 2020 • 7:00am
Over the past few months the drive to consider the aesthetics of our outdoor spaces has never felt more relevant. Buying art for the garden now seems both desirable and logical.
There are a range of aesthetic reasons for investing in outdoor sculpture: you can be looking for the work to space out or backdrop the planting; you might be thinking of the sculpture as almost architectural – dividing the space; or perhaps the work is required just to add an element of humour or whimsy to the garden – pixies and lions emerging from the flower beds.
In order to realise some of these projects you can contact fabricators who can quote to construct the kind of thing you’re imagining, but, if you’re also looking for your purchase to be investable contemporary art (contemporary in the sense of being rooted in the cultural present whilst acknowledging the art historical past), you need to find contemporary artists.
There are art galleries and even garden centres that will offer you generic sculptures, but these can be extremely expensive and they are often little more than shiny (or quickly patinated) baubles. Even if you go to galleries that specialise in sculpture, the chances are that you will be shown a fairly dry range of work.
Interesting outdoor sculptures are really hard to find as the majority are either poor imitations of past greats (usually Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth), or uninspired craft experiments with hefty materials like wood or stone.
If you are able to see a lot of sculpture at once then you might find something that really engages you. The Sculpture Park in Surrey, which reopens to visitors on July 1st, offers the chance to wander around and look at over a thousand pieces of incredibly varied sculpture in a woodland setting.
I’m not sure whether any of the work would be a clever financial investment, but there is enough on view for you to begin to make an informed selection and if a particular piece chimes with you or the intended setting, then maybe that is enough.
Ideally, you want to find a piece that not only works in the space, but is also an investment in an artist who is making genuinely thoughtful contemporary work. When you move away from the frightening price bracket of the stone-and-steel columns and creatures by blue-chip artists like Carol Bove, Ugo Rondinone or Thomas Hauseago, then finding sculpture for only thousands of pounds is difficult.
The works of these celebrated artists are often extraordinary, but outdoor sculpture is necessarily large work, often metres tall and tonnes in weight. It needs to be able to brave the elements and the production costs alone can be high, meaning that each sculpture can be £100,000 or more.
There are inspiring artists like Douglas White and Brian Griffiths whose series, ‘Black Palms’ and ‘For the Wilderness’ respectively, are great examples of more affordable contemporary outdoor sculpture. Doug White, a British artist who has work in eminent sculpture parks round the world, is best known for his sculptures made of exploded tyres, reconfigured into towering palm trees.
Brian Griffiths is a British artist who makes thoughtful and playful work. His series ‘For the Wilderness’ includes sculptural assemblages based on traditional cast iron benches and Disney wildlife that consider the weightiness of history.
Work by such credible artists, who have an exhibition profile and critical weight behind them, are much more likely to be both continually engaging, and also good investments. They are more likely to be sellable in the future if you ever move house - though professionally packed up, they could be taken with you.
If they can be installed once, they can probably be uninstalled and reinstalled. The recent spate of thefts of bronze statues round the country has proven that if there is the will, even the most improbably large sculptures can be moved.
As with buying any piece of contemporary art, a good place to start is to go to a reputable contemporary gallery (like Arcade on Lever Street or Seventeen on Kingsland Road) or begin talking to a recommended art consultant. Any of them can show you a range of work that might be suitable and interesting, but in order to find great work at interesting prices, there are two different approaches that they can take.
Firstly, a good advisor can help you find credible artists and ask for early versions and maquettes of completed works that are available at a reduced costs direct from the studio; and secondly, you can approach artists who might be interested in offering proposals for new work - “ideas that they’d always wanted to realise”.
As the work will not yet exist, there is room for discussion. Even if you are buying one of a series there is a good chance, due to the size and material costs, that the work will be made especially for you, so details and specifications can be negotiated - making the whole experience both more bespoke and much more satisfying.
In many ways there is little difference between commissioning a sculpture and commissioning any other piece of work - you see what kind of work the artist has made, and then enter into discussions about what would work.
A recent client of mine based in Wimbledon wanted to create a sculpture path that would wind around his garden. The initial brief assumed fairly typical pedestal and column work - objects to be admired in the borders as you strolled past, but within a few weeks the suggestions provided by a group of engaging contemporary artists, like Neil Hamon and Doug Fishbone, who were asked to consider proposals for outdoor pieces, led to a sharp escalation in the ambition for the project; it will now lead to a distinctive and progressive sculpture path.
The time frame may extend as materials are tested and placement discussed, but the end result will be unique and exciting.
A decent advisor will be able to present proposals from artists who they know to be serious. Not only can you be sure of the quality of thought, but it is also really exciting to be there at the origin of these pieces - involved in early decisions around materials and size, whilst helping an artist realise a new piece of work.
By commissioning sculpture in this way you will be saving costs, getting the work you want, and also acting as a patron of the arts – a noble and worthwhile benefit.