MARSDEN WOO
MARSDEN WOO

FROM 8 SEPTEMBER 2023

ROBERT MARSDEN
Drawing Focus

We are delighted to present this online retrospective exhibition of work by Robert Marsden, an artist best known for his uncompromising minimalist metal sculpture.

Marsden's work has been characterised by the critic Mel Gooding as ‘belonging to that specifically modernist type of the sculptural architectonic’, referencing the language of architectural geometry, yet directing this towards a realm of uncertainty and optical illusion. The aesthetic of industrial production meets extraordinary artisanal skill and handwork in Marsden’s sculptures, which range in scale from tabletop to monumental outdoor pieces. Those represented here span a period of over 30 years from the mid 1980s onwards.


All photography by Philip Sayer, unless otherwise attributed

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3    Photo by Michael Harvey

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[Robert Marsden's works] set solidity ...against void or, to be more precise (as the work demands), volume against absence.

...Change the fall of light, change the form perceived: these sculptures offer the eye the pleasures of both two-dimensional and three-dimensional geometry and of their interplay. And more besides.  

Mel Gooding 2006

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19    Photo by the artist

1 Interruptions  2011  Private collection, Lebanon
2 An Obstruction (No.12)  1994 
3 Block Thirteen - A Step in the Right Direction  1993
4 Block Six B  1991  
5 Serpentine Spouts  1985  Private collection, USA
6 Two Closed Cups - More or Less  1998  Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
7 Neither Here Nor There  2016
8 Nought  2000
9 Study for Asides  2006
10 An Aside 2.02  2005

11 An Aside, 4.01 and An Aside, 4.03  Both 2005
12 Stark Reality  2008-2009  
13 Another Dimension  2013 
14 Displaced (No.22)  2009  Private collection, Hong Kong
15 Set Square, 09  2018  
16 Study for Displaced Series  2009  
17 Understood  2013  
18 Quartered  2012  Unknown private collection
19 Contradictions  2011

Robert Marsden studied at High Wycombe College of Technology and the Royal College of Art. He has exhibited internationally and his work can be found in the Crafts Council Collection, London; Birmingham Museum & City Art Gallery; Shipley Art Gallery; Sheffield Assay Office; and the National Gallery of Australia.

For more information or to enquire about sales please contact Tatjana Marsden
info@marsdenwoo.com 
+44(0)20 7336 6396

ENQUIRE ABOUT SALES

VIEW ROBERT MARSDEN'S ARTIST PROFILE

FROM 8 SEPTEMBER 2023

ROBERT MARSDEN
Drawing Focus

We are delighted to present this online retrospective exhibition of work by Robert Marsden, an artist best known for his uncompromising minimalist metal sculpture.

Marsden's work has been characterised by the critic Mel Gooding as ‘belonging to that specifically modernist type of the sculptural architectonic’, referencing the language of architectural geometry, yet directing this towards a realm of uncertainty and optical illusion. The aesthetic of industrial production meets extraordinary artisanal skill and handwork in Marsden’s sculptures, which range in scale from tabletop to monumental outdoor pieces. Those represented here span a period of over 30 years from the mid 1980s onwards.


All photography by Philip Sayer, unless otherwise attributed

MARSDEN WOO


1

MARSDEN WOO


2

MARSDEN WOO


3    Photo by Michael Harvey

MARSDEN WOO


4

MARSDEN WOO


5

MARSDEN WOO


6

MARSDEN WOO


7

MARSDEN WOO


8

MARSDEN WOO


9

MARSDEN WOO


10

MARSDEN WOO


11

[Robert Marsden's works] set solidity ...against void or, to be more precise (as the work demands), volume against absence.

...Change the fall of light, change the form perceived: these sculptures offer the eye the pleasures of both two-dimensional and three-dimensional geometry and of their interplay. And more besides.  

Mel Gooding 2006

MARSDEN WOO


   12

MARSDEN WOO


13

MARSDEN WOO


14

MARSDEN WOO


15

MARSDEN WOO


16

MARSDEN WOO


17

MARSDEN WOO


18

MARSDEN WOO


19    Photo by the artist

1 Interruptions  2011  Private collection, Lebanon
2 An Obstruction (No.12)  1994 
3 Block Thirteen - A Step in the Right Direction  1993
4 Block Six B  1991  
5 Serpentine Spouts  1985  Private collection, USA
6 Two Closed Cups - More or Less  1998  Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
7 Neither Here Nor There  2016
8 Nought  2000
9 Study for Asides  2006
10 An Aside 2.02  2005

11 An Aside, 4.01 and An Aside, 4.03  Both 2005
12 Stark Reality  2008-2009  
13 Another Dimension  2013 
14 Displaced (No.22)  2009  Private collection, Hong Kong
15 Set Square, 09  2018  
16 Study for Displaced Series  2009  
17 Understood  2013  
18 Quartered  2012  Unknown private collection
19 Contradictions  2011

Robert Marsden studied at High Wycombe College of Technology and the Royal College of Art. He has exhibited internationally and his work can be found in the Crafts Council Collection, London; Birmingham Museum & City Art Gallery; Shipley Art Gallery; Sheffield Assay Office; and the National Gallery of Australia.