Rachel Whiteread facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Rachel Whiteread
|
|
|---|---|
Rachel Whiteread, 2018
|
|
| Born | 20 April 1963 |
| Nationality | English |
| Education |
|
| Known for | Sculpture, Installation art |
|
Notable work
|
|
| Movement | Young British Artists |
| Awards |
|
| Patron(s) | Environmental Justice Foundation |
Dame Rachel Whiteread (born 20 April 1963) is an English artist. She is famous for making sculptures, often by creating "casts." A cast is like a mold that captures the shape of something. She was the first woman to win the important Turner Prize in 1993.
Whiteread was part of a group called the Young British Artists. Her well-known works include House, which was a concrete cast of the inside of a whole Victorian house. She also created the Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial in Vienna, which looks like a library with books turned backward. Another famous piece is Untitled Monument, a clear sculpture for the empty fourth plinth in London's Trafalgar Square.
She received special honors from the Queen. She was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2006. Later, in 2019, she became a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for her contributions to art.
About Rachel Whiteread
Early Life and Learning
Rachel Whiteread was born in 1963 in Ilford, England. Her mother, Patricia Whiteread, was also an artist. Her father, Thomas Whiteread, was a geography teacher. He also managed things at a college.
Rachel learned about art from a young age. She took a workshop on casting with sculptor Richard Wilson. This helped her see new ways to create art by casting objects. She studied sculpture at the Slade School of Art in London from 1985 to 1987. She earned her master's degree there in 1987.
After finishing school, Whiteread worked at the Serpentine Gallery. She also worked for a time in Highgate Cemetery, fixing old coffins. She started showing her art in 1987. Her first solo art show was in 1988. Today, she lives and works in east London with her partner, Marcus Taylor. They are both sculptors and have two sons.
How She Creates Art
Many of Rachel Whiteread's artworks are casts of everyday items. She often casts the "negative space" around objects. This means she casts the empty space inside or around things. For example, she has made solid casts of the space under tables and chairs. She has also cast the empty space inside entire rooms and buildings.
She says her casts hold "the residue of years and years of use." This means they capture the feeling and history of how things were used. Whiteread focuses on the shape and outline of things in her art.
While still at art school, Whiteread made her first sculpture called Closet. She made a plaster cast of the inside of a wooden closet. She then covered it with black felt. This piece was inspired by her childhood memories of hiding in a dark closet. After graduating, she used a special grant to rent a studio. There, she created Shallow Breath (1988). This was a cast of the underside of a bed. Both sculptures were shown in her first solo exhibition in 1988. This early success helped her get money for bigger projects.
Famous Artworks
Ghost (1990)
After her first show, Whiteread wanted to cast the empty space that objects would fill. She called this project "mummifying the air in a room." She finished Ghost in 1990. This artwork was a cast of a room in a house in north London. The house was going to be torn down. She used plaster to cast the walls and ceiling of the room in pieces. Then, she put them together on a metal frame.
Ghost was first shown at the Chisenhale Gallery. It was bought by Charles Saatchi. Later, it was moved to the new Gagosian Gallery in London. In 2004, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., bought the artwork. The National Gallery said her work defines the space between what is there and what is not.
House (1993) and the Turner Prize
In October 1993, Whiteread finished House. This was a concrete cast of the inside of a Victorian house. She had thought about casting a whole house since 1991. She worked with Artangel to find a house that was going to be torn down. While working on this, she also created Untitled (Room) in Berlin. This was a cast of a simple, anonymous room she built herself. This sculpture is now in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
House is perhaps her most famous work. It was a concrete cast of the inside of a Victorian house. It was shown at the actual spot where the house used to be in East London. The artwork received strong reactions. It won her the Turner Prize in 1993 for best young British artist. But it also won the K Foundation art award for the worst British artist. Rachel Whiteread was the first woman to win a Turner Prize. The local council decided to tear down House on 11 January 1994, which caused some debate.
Untitled (One Hundred Spaces) (1997)
For the Sensation exhibition in 1997, Whiteread showed Untitled (One Hundred Spaces). This artwork was a series of clear resin casts of the space underneath chairs. One art critic described it as looking like "a field of large glace sweets." They also said it looked like "solidified jellies, opalescent ice-cubes, or bars of soap."
Water Tower (1998)
In 1998, Whiteread created Water Tower for New York City's Public Art Fund. This piece was a clear resin cast of a water tower. It was placed on a rooftop in New York City's SoHo area. People called it "an extremely beautiful object." They noted how it changed color with the sky. The artwork is now part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
Holocaust Monument (2000)
During the Holocaust, 65,000 Austrian Jews were killed. To remember them, a new memorial was planned in Vienna. Rachel Whiteread was chosen to create this monument. Her artwork, called Nameless Library, was built in Judenplatz Square in Vienna. It looks like an inside-out library.
This structure is made from concrete casts of books. The spines of the books face inward. This means you cannot read them. This idea shows the lost lives of the 65,000 Austrian Jews. Their stories cannot be told. It gives a feeling of loss. Some people also think the books refer to the Nazi book burnings. The sculpture also has no corners or bookshelves. This symbolizes a lack of structure and support.
Nameless Library was built on the site of Vienna's oldest synagogues. This caused some discussion. Some people felt the old synagogue grounds were enough for a memorial.
Untitled Monument (2001)
With Untitled Monument (2001), Rachel Whiteread became the third artist to create a sculpture for the empty Fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. Her sculpture was an 11-ton resin cast of the plinth itself. It was placed upside down. This created a mirror image of the plinth. It was said to be the largest object ever made from resin.
The artwork was made in two parts. Whiteread raised money for the piece herself. She sold small models of the sculpture. One art critic said it looked like "a glass coffin." Another said it was "as light and gleaming as the plinth is dark and squat." They felt it showed the plinth's emptiness well.
Embankment (2005–2006)
In 2004, Rachel Whiteread was asked to create an artwork for the huge Turbine Hall at Tate Modern. She accepted after thinking about how to fill the space. In late 2005, her work Embankment was installed and opened to the public on October 10.
It is made of about 14,000 clear, white plastic boxes. These boxes are casts of the inside of cardboard boxes. They are stacked in different ways. Some are very tall, like mountains. Others are lower, but still taller than a person. They are held in place with glue. Whiteread mentioned scenes from movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark as ideas for her work. She also spoke about packing boxes after her mother died.
The boxes were made from casts of ten simple cardboard boxes. A company that makes grit bins and traffic poles produced them. Critics had different opinions about the work. Some called it "generous and brave." Others said it looked like "a random pile of giant sugar cubes."
Charity Box (2007)
Whiteread made this small plaster sculpture for a charity auction. It was to help the Prior Weston primary school in London. The piece is quite small, measuring about 16 cm by 11.5 cm by 11.5 cm.
The Gran Boathouse (2010)
The Gran Boathouse is located by the water in Gran, Norway. From far away, it looks like a normal boathouse. But up close, you can see it is an artwork made of concrete. The work is a cast of the inside of an old boathouse.
Whiteread turned the boathouse inside out. She captured a moment in time. She wants us to think about what we see around us. Rachel Whiteread said, "I have mummified the air inside the boathouse." She wanted to make a "shy sculpture" that would stand peacefully. The boathouse and its inside had the qualities she was looking for. The sculpture helps to save something that might have been lost.
Recent Work (Since 2012)
Rachel Whiteread continues to create art using her casting method.
- Detached 1, Detached 2, and Detached 3 (2012) are concrete and steel casts of the empty inside of wooden sheds.
- Circa 1665 (I) (2012), LOOK, LOOK, LOOK (2012), and Loom (2012) are casts made from doors and windows. They are in shades of pink, pale green, or clear resin. These sculptures glow with light.
- Other works like Untitled (Amber) (2012) and Untitled (Green) (2012) are small cardboard shapes. They are mounted on paper and painted with silver leaf. They have clear "windows" that look like her resin sculptures.
Cabin (2016)
Cabin is a concrete cast of the inside of a wooden shed. It has been on Discovery Hill on Governors Island in New York Harbour since 2016. Whiteread uses this idea to show a space that once existed but is now gone. Cabin is away from the busy city. It creates a calm and quiet feeling. It is her first public artwork in the United States that is permanently installed.
Whiteread wanted to "blur the notion of space." She wanted the park's nature to help hide the artwork. She said, "What an extraordinary site, and what an honor to be asked to put something there." She wanted to create a "place of remembrance" that was "evocative" but not a memorial to the World Trade Center.
Other Projects
In 2023, Whiteread created a 31-foot-tall Christmas tree. It was covered with 102 circular white neon hoops. This tree was for Carlos Place outside The Connaught hotel in London. The hotel asked her to create the piece.
See also
In Spanish: Rachel Whiteread para niños
