Yorkshire Sculpture Park presents four major sculptures by Damien Hirst in the 18th-century Country Park.
Charity (2002-2003), Myth (2010), The Hat Makes the Man (2004-2007) and The Virgin Mother (2005-2006) came to YSP as part of Yorkshire Sculpture International (YSI), a festival of sculpture which took place across Leeds and Wakefield from 22 June until 29 September 2019.
Hirst’s ten-metre- tall The Virgin Mother stands against the backdrop of the Lower Lake, a powerful presence in the landscape. Referencing the stance of Degas’s Little Dancer of Fourteen Years (c.1881), the sculpture’s cross-section reveals the foetus curled within the womb.
Charity, on display near the recently opened Weston building, is recognisable as based on Scope collection boxes which were commonly seen on British high streets between the 1960s and 1970s. A young girl wearing a calliper forlornly cradles a teddy bear and a donations box which reads ‘please give generously’. The work questions historic and outdated ways of depicting disability and seeking charity.
From 13/04/2021 To 01/04/2022
