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Lot Essay
Virtue forms part of a group of three works that Flanagan conceived in 1993, each on a similar scale that explore the standing hare using tools for divination. These works, are titled Humility, Awe and Virtue. In all three works Barry Flanagan brings to life the humour and mythical resonances that have made his hares the defining icon of his work. In a typically anthropomorphic vision, in Virtue the nimble and enigmatic creature stands tall, head and ears held high, all energy focused on the tip of the divining rod. The titles assigned to each work, provide humour and irony, in the case of Humility, the hare’s head is lowered in line with the divining stick, however, the priapic state tells another story. Awe shows the hare in a state of wonder as if admiring a full moon, and this is echoed by the disc in his hand.
The practice of dowsing – searching for water sources or treasure by divination, usually with a Y-shaped branch of witch hazel – is a rural pseudoscience that chimes with Flanagan’s gleefully anti-rationalist outlook, a quest personified in the three hares from this series. Samuel Sheppard’s 1651 Epigrams theological, philosophical, and romantick explains: ‘Some Sorcerers do boast they have a Rod, / Gather’d with Vowes and Sacrifice, / And (borne about) will strangely nod / To hidden Treasure where it lies’. Such ancient and mysterious pursuits delighted Flanagan, who was also heavily influenced by the absurdist philosopher Alfred Jarry. ‘What I liked best about Jarry was his invention of the science of Pataphysics, or the science of imaginary solutions. It’s a kind of anti-philosophy that challenges traditional ideas’ (B. Flanagan, quoted in H. U. Obrist, ‘Barry Flanagan in Conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist’, in E. Juncosa (ed.), exhibition catalogue, Barry Flanagan: Sculpture 1965-2005, Dublin, Irish Museum of Modern Art, 2006, p. 59).
In the present work, the mythopoeic and the absurd combine in the joyously fluid figure of the hare, charmed with Flanagan’s distinctive ludic sensibility. Configured as an avatar of existential and conceptual freedom, the hare is also a symbol of life and fertility; for Flanagan, indeed, the hare was endlessly productive as a personal totem of creativity. He believed that the poetic and sculptural existed in all the physical world around us, and the title Virtue perhaps suggests a submission to the undercurrents of subconscious and subterranean meaning that flow throughout existence: enchanted and enchanting, Flanagan’s hares embody the magical essence of his work.
The practice of dowsing – searching for water sources or treasure by divination, usually with a Y-shaped branch of witch hazel – is a rural pseudoscience that chimes with Flanagan’s gleefully anti-rationalist outlook, a quest personified in the three hares from this series. Samuel Sheppard’s 1651 Epigrams theological, philosophical, and romantick explains: ‘Some Sorcerers do boast they have a Rod, / Gather’d with Vowes and Sacrifice, / And (borne about) will strangely nod / To hidden Treasure where it lies’. Such ancient and mysterious pursuits delighted Flanagan, who was also heavily influenced by the absurdist philosopher Alfred Jarry. ‘What I liked best about Jarry was his invention of the science of Pataphysics, or the science of imaginary solutions. It’s a kind of anti-philosophy that challenges traditional ideas’ (B. Flanagan, quoted in H. U. Obrist, ‘Barry Flanagan in Conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist’, in E. Juncosa (ed.), exhibition catalogue, Barry Flanagan: Sculpture 1965-2005, Dublin, Irish Museum of Modern Art, 2006, p. 59).
In the present work, the mythopoeic and the absurd combine in the joyously fluid figure of the hare, charmed with Flanagan’s distinctive ludic sensibility. Configured as an avatar of existential and conceptual freedom, the hare is also a symbol of life and fertility; for Flanagan, indeed, the hare was endlessly productive as a personal totem of creativity. He believed that the poetic and sculptural existed in all the physical world around us, and the title Virtue perhaps suggests a submission to the undercurrents of subconscious and subterranean meaning that flow throughout existence: enchanted and enchanting, Flanagan’s hares embody the magical essence of his work.