
WE the moderns: Gaudier-Brzeska and the birth of modern sculpture
20 January - 18 March 2007
To launch Kettle’s Yard’s 50th birthday year we explored the sculptural world of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska. This was the first exhibition to set Gaudier among his European contemporaries and to showcase his contribution to the birth of modern sculpture.
Gaudier’s career as a sculptor was brief. Like many artists of his generation, he was killed in action during World War I, aged just 23. Yet, in the three and a half years in England, before leaving for the trenches, Gaudier created a substantial and truly advanced body of work.
Initially inspired by the sculptures of Auguste Rodin and Post-Impressionist painting, he soon became aware of the latest artistic developments on the continent, above all Cubism, Futurism and Expressionism.
Gaudier was fascinated by the problems of expressing movement, constructing sculptural forms through geometrical planes, carving directly in stone, and reconciling European roots with the impact of non-European sculpture. Such concerns were shared with artists he cited as fellow ‘moderns’ – Brancusi, Modigliani, Epstein and Archipenko – and by others, such as Duchamp-Villon, Laurens, Lipchitz, Matisse and Picasso, as well as the German Expressionists and the Italian Futurists.
Supported by Arts Council England and The Henry Moore Foundation, the exhibition included major loans from across Europe by all these artists as well as drawing on Kettle’s Yard’s own substantial collection of work by Gaudier.
Gallery













Henri Gaudier-Brzeska
Find out about the exhibition’s central artist.

Henri Gaudier-Brezska
Read about the artist and discover his works in the collection.

Mermaid, 1913
Listen to Jim Ede describing Henri Gaudier-Brzeska’s 1913 sculpture, ‘Mermaid’.

Shop
Discover our range of products featuring the work of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, including postcards, prints, books and homewares.