Artist: Brian Taylor

To mark 90 years since his birth, Messums presents a new exhibition of sculpture by Brian Taylor (1935-2013). The exhibition centres around Taylor’s series of ‘Anguished Heads’ (1968-71), created between 1963 and 1971, exploring the artist’s engagement with the concept of anguish and the work of European artists and writers of the fin de siecle for whom anguish was a similarly important theme, such as Auguste Rodin, Medardo Rosso, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Friedrich Nietzsche.

Best known for his sculptural portraits of humans and animals, Taylor married meticulous measurements with his free and expressive handling of clay to develop an oeuvre of highly emotionally charged sculptures in clay, cement, marble and bronze, uncannily infused with the life-force of their subjects. His aptitude for portrait sculpture brought him great acclaim even as a student at the Slade School of Art where he won numerous prizes, including the coveted Prix de Rome which allowed him to travel to Italy, during which time he became an assistant to the eminent Italian sculptor Emilio Greco and became immersed in the history of European art and ideas.

Throughout his life, Taylor held a deep-rooted fascination with the notion of anguish – the state of severe mental or physical pain which he himself had experienced more than most owing to the traumas of his childhood. The works on show are extraordinarily honest and raw, and provide a unique window into Taylor’s life, revealing not only the nuance of his individual practice, but also his profound sensitivity and intellectual curiosity.