The summer season at Tate St Ives is the highlight of its year as the Cornish town fills with holiday crowds. This year there are three independent sculpture shows running concurrently: Richard Long, Naum Gabo and Kosho Ito (3 July-13 October). Richard Long takes up the main part of the museum, filling four galleries with specially commissioned works. Two galleries house works by Russian constructivist Naum Gabo, from the Tate’s main collection, and there are two large-scale ceramic installations by contemporary Japanese artist Kosho Ito. All three are very different artists, chosen on their independent merits. Richard Long’s new works includes a sculpture made of Delabole slate, a work based on the I-Ching symbol for earth, and wall works made from Cornish driftwood, River Avon mud and Cornish china clay. The highlight of the Naum Gabo exhibition is a series of prints Opus 1-12, made late in Gabo’s career and rarely seen as a complete portfolio. Models and sketches for a number of major works are also on display as well as a series of his works in stone, including larger carved sculptures and small found stones in which he inscribed lines and patterns. Kosho Ito has created two site-specific installations using the 55 foot-long curved ceramic showcase and the gallery courtyard. It is the first time his work is seen in Britain.
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as 'Richard Long, Naum Gabo, Kosho Ito'
