Olivia Musgrave
Olivia Musgrave was born in Dublin in 1958. With an Irish Father and a Greek Mother, the influence of bothcountries is readily discernible in her work. A love of horses and adeep understanding of ancient Greek myths characterise her work, butpossibly her greatest achievement has been the ability to bring thesepassions to life with a sharp and intelligent wit. She studied sculpture a the City & Guilds of London under Allan Sly and has had numerous soloexhibitions in England, Ireland, South Africa and the United States.Major commissions, most recently for the Oxford University BusinessSchool, the Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind and the headquarters forBoots plc have attracted widespread press attention. Her work is drawn both from life and from the imagination where she draws inspiration from Greek mythology.
In artistic terms, Musgrave has been influenced by 20th Century Italian sculptors, including Marini, Martini, Greco and Manzu. Alongside her personal work, she has completed a number of portrait and public commissions in bronze. She is a member of both the Royal Society of British Sculptors and the Society of Portrait Sculptors.
Olivia Musgrave currently lives and works in London and Suffolk.
Catalogue Text
“The Greek myths are rooted in an instinctual, imaginative response to our natural surroundings. That is why all people respond so spontaneously to their many levels of truth.The stories carry levels of meaning which do not need to be explained.The Amazons, for example, are moon-led, as all women are. Amazons are sometimes thought of simply as female warriors. But in the old stories,they look at the moon, they are guided by it, they are its servants, in their triumphs and their sorrows. In the story of Europa, the cow herd girl who fell in love with Zeus, we find a sensual form of Annunciation. She loves the most masculine thing imaginable - a bull.She also gives herself, unwittingly, to her God, since Zeus, in orde rto win the girl, has come disguised as a snow-white heifer.
Very many of Olivia Musgrave´s sculptures bring these ancient stories to life once more. She makes wonderfully sensual Amazons, often sitting astride lithe, vibrant horses. I tingle when I see these sculptures.They are profoundly mysterious. They capture the wistful religion of the Greeks, gazing sorrowfully at the moon. But these are also the work of an Irishwoman who knows horses, and has in every sense a feel for them. Olivia Musgrave´s Greek and Irish ancestry draws out from the old stories potent images which speak to us very strongly. They are Amazons all right, as they raise their terrifying spears, or, when resting, as they recline their lovely heads. We could hear their blood-curdling warcries, but it would not much surprise us if these shrieks turned to a"View, halloo!" They might have originated on the shores of the Black Sea, but these Amazons owe kinship to Somerville and Ross. Likewise,Olivia´s cows and bulls have the numinous qualities of Zeus as the snow-white heifer, but they never lose their truly bovine natures. We are down in the farm, but stretching towards a mythological heaven.
Classical sculpture has a very ancient lineage. Olivia Musgrave draws not only on the traditional subject matter of antique Greek sculpture, but also on the neo-classical explorations of the twentieth century masters,especially Marino Marini. Yet I never feel that her work is other than her own. Like all considerable artists, Olivia Musgrave "makes it new".She has a tangible joy in the actual craft of sculpture. Her statues,large or small, have all been touched with love. You can tell that she enjoys handling matter, and fashioning it into pleasing shapes. Her work is extremely tactile. I instinctively stroke those works of hers which I am lucky enough to own. The old Oxford Ox which she made for the plinth opposite the railway station is the sturdiest possible reminder to the tourists and academics when they step off to see the Dreaming Spires, that they are arriving at a market town with a cattle market.
In all the work, large and small,there is an intensity of emotion which is palpable. Europa is never still with her bull in Olivia´s repeated renditions of this myth. She is falling, tumbling, headlong into ecstatic love. Eurydice gazes with heartbreaking love towards her man, knowing she is lost forever. The resting Amazon, with her hand behind her neck, is a thoughtful woman,almost a lovesick schoolgirl. Every sculpture catches us short, draws us up, makes us want to plumb its secret. What is she thinking? - we ask, not merely of the sculptures, but of the artist.
I think that the works of Olivia Musgrave are so successful because such questions are not answerable except in plastic terms. Rodin, asked to explain some sculpture, replied that if he was able to put into words what he had been trying to express, he would not have needed to go to the great labour of carving the doors of the Inferno. Sculpture is its own language. Of all the arts, however, it is often the coldest, and almost by definition the most static. What lifts Olivia Musgrave above her contemporaries into the ranks of true artists is her passionate intensity, her profound spiritual intelligence, her sensuality, all matched by consummate deftness and skill. She is still young. It will be fascinating to see how this work will develop - whether, for example, she will experiment with more abstract forms, or continue to give vibrant life to work in a representational tradition. Perhaps both. Either way, each new exhibition is something to be eagerly awaited, exciting us for the future, but also reminding us of what an impressive body of work this consummate artist has already produced.”AN WILSON, 2004
