Jean
Warren, Rebecca
Life Story
Jean, 2017, is one of a group of large, vertical, bronze sculptures that teeter on the border of figuration and abstraction. Although any sense of a human figure seems to melt away, characteristics of a female body bring us back in search of recognisable attributes; a head, a braid of hair, a skirt, breast, leg or foot. Simultaneously beautiful and grotesque, and awkward yet elegant, the hand-painted surface, and use of colour, amplifies both the exuberance and tenderness of Warren’s work. The sculpture is currently installed in the west-end garden in dialogue with Henry Moore’s, Draped Reclining Figure (1957-8). It is mounted high on a pastel pink coloured plinth designed by Warren specifically for this location. The work was first shown in All That Heaven Allows: New and Recent Works, the inaugural exhibition at the new Tate St Ives in 2017.
Warren’s works “show figures in flux – metamorphosing in and out of their material and distorting our ability to recognise and hold on to images. They have a mutating quality – twisting, turning, sensual and urgent – and yet remain wholly self-possessed and poised.”
Laura Smith, p.59, Rebecca Warren, All That Heaven Allows, published Tate 2017.
Rebecca Warren OBE RA (b.1965) is one of the most important British sculptors working today. Her broad creative palette includes modernist and pop cultural influences, as well as an interest in the ancient and the uncanny. Her predominantly female figures range from curvaceous and animated to the slender, still and abstract. She was born in London and studied at Goldsmith’s College and the Chelsea College of Art. From 1993 to 1994, Warren was an artist-in-residence at The Ruskin School at the University of Oxford. She was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2006, and the Vincent Award in 2008. Solo exhibitions have been held at The Kunsthalle Zürich work in 2004; the Serpentine Gallery, London in 2009; and the Kunstverein Munich in 2013. In 2016, the Dallas Museum of Art hosted a major exhibition, Rebecca Warren: The Main Feeling, her first solo museum show in the USA. Other major shows followed at Tate St Ives in 2017 and Belvedere 21, Vienna, Austria in 2022.
Warren was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Arts in 2014. She has also served as Professor of Arts at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf since 2014. She lives and works in London and is represented by Maureen Paley, Galerie Max Hetzler, and Matthew Marks Gallery. In 2020, she was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to art.
Further Reading
All That Heaven Allows: Rebecca Warren, published by Tate, 2017
On display
Title/Description: Jean
Born: 2017
Measurements: h. 2690 x w. 980 x d. 980 mm
Accession Number: L.236
Copyright: © Rebecca Warren
Credit Line: Courtesy of the artist
