WORK OF THE WEEK : Richard Deacon, ‘Like You Know’, 2002
Richard Deacon
Like You Know, 2002
Glazed ceramic
80 x 135 x 114 cm
31 ½ x 53 ¼ x 45 in.
Created at Niels Dietrich’s internationally reputed ceramic workshop in Cologne, where Richard Deacon (b.1949) has been working regularly since the turn of the millennium, the angular trapezoid form of Like You Know drips with layers of glaze. The work urges the viewer to absorb all they see, challenge the work from every angle, and interpret each purposeful yet unpredictable mark, outline and pattern.
Widely regarded as one of Britain’s leading sculptors, Richard Deacon’s career has spanned over four decades and his works can be found in public collections all over the world. Deacon’s work is characterized by his exploration of material capacities. Working with wood, metal, paper, plastics, cloth, leather, vinyl and ceramic, he has developed a visual language that explores the relationship between depth, mass and volume.
For Deacon, an artist who often relies on inexactness and experiment as part of his artistic process, the elemental uncertainty of working with ceramics, especially the unknown and uncontrolled reactions that take place in the kiln, is inspiring – and this, in part, explains why his ceramics have become such a vital part of his output in the last couple of decades.
Richard Deacon, Like You Know, 2002
Installed in the Orangery, Roche Court Sculpture Park
Richard Deacon's recent solo exhibitions include Tread, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria (2023); Harbour, Lisson Gallery, Shanghai (2022); Richard Deacon: Fourfold Way, Galerie Thomas Shulte, Berlin, Germany (2021); Nevermind, Middelheim Museum, Antwerp, Belgium (2017); What You See is What You Get, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA, USA (2017); Richard Deacon, Tate Britain, London, UK (2014).
Deacon's work is displayed in collections around the world, including: Tate Collection, London, UK; British Council Collection, UK; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC, USA; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA; Sprengel Museum, Hanover, Germany; Tokyo Forum, Tokyo, Japan; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy.
Richard Deacon received the Turner Prize in 1987. He was awarded the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the Ministry of Culture, France in 1996 and made a CBE in 1999.
