Night in the Museum curated by Ryan Gander at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

‘When I look at sculptures of the human figure I am frequently left thinking of all the things that they’ve seen. This is the world of the silent onlooker.’ Ryan Gander



"Night in the Museum represents the work of over thirty artists including Don Brown, Angela Bulloch, Patrick Caulfield, Jacob Epstein, Liam Gillick, Roger Hiorns, David Hockney, Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson, Kerry Stewart, and Rebecca Warren.




Artist Ryan Gander has curated this exhibition consisting of works belonging to the Arts Council collection. He has displayed a selection of figurative sculptures alongside a range of post-war British artworks that often feature the colour blue. Blue is an important colour in Gander's work, and for him it represents "the abstract ideas often found in modern and contemporary art." The figures are positioned so as to be admiring the surrounding artworks.


My initial impression of the exhibition was that it was very cluttered, leaving little space around the work, but having spent some time in the gallery I enjoyed the sense of sharing the viewing experience with the figurative sculptures, closing the gap between the audience and the artwork.