Thinker on a Rock

1997

Barry Flanagan

Sculptor, British, 1941 - 2009

A rabbit with long ears and spindly limbs sitting on a boulder is cast in bronze in this freestanding sculpture. In this view, the rabbit’s body is angled to our left. It rests its long muzzle on its right fist, to our left. That elbow rests on the right, bent knee. The other wrist rests on the other bent knee. The textured boulder sits on a disk-like round base also cast in bronze, and the sculpture is displayed on a grassy lawn against a screen of mature green trees.
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Barry Flanagan explored painting, dance, and installation work as alternatives to the constructed metal sculptures that were the prevalent idiom when he was in art school in London in the 1960s. His inventive and varied body of work is filled with humor and poetic associations, often evoked by the particular organic materials he employed.

While working with clay in the early 1980s, Flanagan perceived the image of a hare "unveiling" itself before him. The hare motif has appeared in a variety of guises in Flanagan's bronzes. In Thinker on a Rock the artist substitutes the hare for Rodin's Thinker (1880), making an irreverent reference to one of the world's best-known sculptures, a version of which may be seen in the West Building sculpture galleries.

Sculpture Garden, Southeast Quadrant
On View

Sculpture Garden, Southeast Quadrant

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    bronze

  • Credit Line

    Gift of John and Mary Pappajohn, Des Moines, Iowa

  • Dimensions

    overall (height of sculpture and base x width x depth): 334 x 181.6 x 257.8 cm (131 1/2 x 71 1/2 x 101 1/2 in.)
    overall (height x diameter of attached base): 26 x 121.9 cm (10 1/4 x 48 in.)
    gross weight (1441 kg): 3171.000 lb

  • Accession

    1999.30.1

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Richard Gray, New York and Chicago); purchased 1999 for NGA by Mr. and Mrs. John Pappajohn, Des Moines, Iowa.

Associated Names

Bibliography

2013

  • Cigola, Francesca. Art Parks: A Tour of America’s Sculpture Parks and Gardens. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2013: 101.

Inscriptions

on top of proper right side of base, "AB" in monogram with "London" in semi-circle below monogram: fo 2/5 AB LONDON

Wikidata ID

Q63861661

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