Visiting Yorkshire Sculpture Park – Bretton Hall

Distance35 miles from Haworth
Travel time by car/public transportCar; about 1 hour, car park at the sculpture park.
Bus train walking; about 2.5 – 3 hrs, journey planner: http://www.yorkshiretravel.net/JourneyPlanner
LocationBretton Hall, West Bretton, Wakefield WF4 4LG. Tel: 01924 830302. Grid ref: N53° 36. 800 W001°34. 501 Map here…
ElevationGrounds: lowest 355ft – highest 421ft
Date visited21/08/2004
Length of visit4hrs
Websitewww.ysp.co.uk
Prices

As of January 2009:

Free entry but if you take a car it costs £4:00 for a days parking. Blue badge holders park free of charge.

Opening Times:

Winter Open daily winter 2009.
Grounds, Centre + shop 10-5
Restaurant 10-4
(Hot food served) 11.30-3
Indoor Galleries 10-4 during exhibitions
Longside Gallery Closed
Car park locked 5.30
ExhibitionsThe YSP holds many different exhibitions each year, see their website for details.

Yorkshire Sculpture park is set in the grounds of the Bretton Estate Wakefield which was designed in the 18th and 19th centuries. The park is 500 acres ranging from wooded areas to open spaces providing a landscape for modern and contemporary sculptures by artist’s from around the world. Take a 360 degree view by Barbara Hepworth’s sculpture family of man, bronze 1970 here…

There is car parking next to the Visitor Centre, parking charges as of April 2007 are £4:00 a day for a car, there is disabled parking and limited access in some areas, tel: 01924 830302 for details.

The Visitor Centre has a shop, restaurant and toilets. Café is good with a nice terrace to walk out on to.
Parts of the grounds are accessible by pushchairs and wheelchairs, if you have mobility difficulties you can book a scooter which is free, tel: 01924 830302 for details.

The park is a great place to see outdoor sculpture in a natural setting anytime of the year, going on a wet day is not advisable as there is not much to do inside. The sculpture park is a good place to take children as they can run about and explore the grounds finding different works.
The sculptures can be tempting for children to play on but the sculpture park code is: “You look and touch, but do not climb or sit on the sculptures.”

Allow plenty of time as you can walk for miles we covered 4.5 miles in the 4 hours we were there. Café and restaurant facilities are good, if you take children it is worth taking food and drinks as it can be some distance to the nearest facility. You can picnic in the grounds the sculpture park code is: “Picnicking is permitted in specific areas only; please use the litter bins provided or take your litter home with you.” Other guidelines are: Dogs must be kept on leads at all times and within the designated areas and are not allowed in the buildings, ball games, cycling, horse riding or kite flying are not allowed. Photo left: Antony Gormley: One and Other.

There is a good free guide with a map of the park, but we found it nice to wander about as the place took us. Signage could be better, some places we went to we were not sure if we were going in the right direction at times, also some of the exhibits were not labeled. Photo left Shaun Pickard “Unnatural” 1999, Neon.

A Brief History of Modern Sculpture

August Rodin (1814-1917) is generally accepted as the first modern sculptor, some of his works were criticised for their lack of finish, one of his famous works “the Kiss” 1901 -4 the stone block is left uncarved allowing us to see the figures as “emerging out” while appreciating the quality of the natural stone. Picture right Ronald Rae: Horse 1994, Granite.

Artists such as Constantin Brancusi (1876-1956) began to work directly with the material, his approach was to reduce the “language” of an object such as a bird, fish or head, and abstract to a pure form which was appropriate to the quality of the material he was working with.

Henry Moore (1898-1986) and Barbara Hepworth (1903-1976) took the idea of abstracting the form and emphasised it in the organic shapes of their works. They were also interested that the solid mass has a relationship with empty space and expressed this by using empty hollows in their sculptures. Picture left Henry Moore: Reclining Mother and Child. 1975 -76 Bronze.

Picture right Barbara Hepworth: Square with Two Circles, 1963, Bronze.

Artists such as Anthony Caro (born 1924) used materials such as steel to explore scale shape and colour to challenge the notions of the way we look at the work. Picture lower left: Anthony Caro: Promenade, 1996, painted steel.

Artists have continued to explore ideas using different materials. Artists such as Richard Long and Andy Goldsworthy (referred to as land artists) use the environment; mud leaves stones, and arrange into sculpture which can have a limited permanence. Barry Flanagan: Field Day 2, 1990, Bronze