Some Steel: Sculpture and Steel in Britain, 1960-90

Some Steel: Sculpture and Steel in Britain, 1960-90 is on at Leeds Art Gallery until 10 January 2027. It's an exhibition that traces the relationship between sculpture and steel over about thirty years, following the material from the gallery and artist-run spaces out into the street and the outdoor museum, and from metropolitan London up to the post-industrial North.

It starts with the brightly coloured abstract steel sculpture of the early 1960s, popularised by Anthony Caro and the New Generation sculptors and closely associated with St Martin's School of Art in London. By the late sixties, steel was so dominant that sculptor Garth Evans, who taught at St Martin's, described himself as "one of the few people around that didn't work in steel."

Evans eventually did make his way into it, though. Through an Artist Placement Group fellowship with the British Steel Corporation — the organisation founded in 1965 that placed artists in industrial settings — he visited and photographed steelworks across the country. British Steel published the resulting photobook, Some Steel, in 1971. He struggled with the material, and after more than a year of effort produced the floor-hugging Breakdown (1971), which he later reused for the public sculpture City Sculpture Project in Cardiff (1972).

Entry is free, as the gallery is a Give What You Can gallery and invites donations. You'll find it at Leeds Art Gallery, The Headrow, Leeds LS1 3AA, running until 10 January 2027.