Nigel Hall

(U.K.) *1943 in Bristol

Nigel Hall is one of the most significant contemporary British sculptors. His works are represented in museums and private collections all over the world. In addition to his openspace sculptures and characteristic reliefs, his many works on paper form a distinct part of his output, reflecting his interest in the play of visual perception. In his abstract, geometric sculptures – mainly in steel, bronze or polished wood – Hall concerns himself with the properties of spatial construction and the observer’s perception of space. Here the internal air space, the spatial surroundings of the sculpture and the working of light and shade play as great a role as the volume of the worked material itself. Depending on the fall of light and on the observer’s angle of view, the works – as creative analogies of their natural surroundings – take on a different effect. “My work has always been about place,” explains Nigel Hall. “I am fascinated by the way geometry can be discerned in landscape.” Nigel Hall is the winner of many awards and since 2003 has been a member of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. From early in his career Hall’s works have been exhibited internationally, and in 1977 he took part in the legendary documenta 6 exhibition. The most recent retrospective of his work was held at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 2008. In Germany, Hall is known not least through his participation in two previous “Blickachsen” exhibitions in Bad Homburg, in 2001 and 2003. In the following year his work was shown in a major two-part exhibition in the Kunsthalle Mannheim and at the Galerie Scheffel in Bad Homburg. In “Blickachsen 8”, Nigel Hall is represented by a bronze in Bad Homburg and by two monumental steel sculptures in the Camp-Phönix-Park in Eschborn. In his works “Crossing (Horizontal)” and “Crossing (Vertical)”, Hall explores the combination of different geometric forms such as arcs, angles and straight lines. In their horizontals and verticals, the three-dimensional interplay of the arcs with the comb-like straight lines leaves one, respectively, with different sense-impressions. As one walks around each of these ”Crossings”, different relationships of balance emerge, and the relations between space and form shift and change dramatically.