Rose Garrard facts for kids
Rose Garrard (born 21 September 1946) is a British artist. She creates art using sculptures, videos, and performances. She is also an author. Her artworks have been shown in famous places like the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Tate Gallery in London. Her art has also been displayed in other countries like Austria and Canada.
Contents
Early Life and Art School
Rose Garrard was born in Bewdley, England. Her family moved to Malvern when she was very young. Her mother owned an antique shop there for many years. Her father was an artist and a soldier. After World War II, he helped soldiers get used to civilian life by running an art college in the Sahara Desert.
Rose started her art education at Stourbridge College of Art in 1965. She then earned a top degree in Sculpture from Birmingham School of Art in 1969. She continued her studies at Chelsea College of Arts in 1970. Rose also received a special scholarship to study in Paris, France, at the Ecole de Beaux Arts. In 1971, she won a gold medal for her sculpture there.
Starting Her Art Career
Since the late 1960s, Rose Garrard's art has explored big ideas. She looks at gender, identity, social status, and power. She often connects her own experiences with historical events.
After her art school show in 1969, Rose won a special art prize. She then showed her "especially fascinating" sculptures of clear, veiled female figures at places like the Serpentine Gallery. In 1977, she had her first solo art show called "Incidents in a Garden." This show included performance art and sculptures. One artwork, "Monument," featured bronze figures of Hitler and Churchill having tea.
For her 1983 show, "Frames of Mind," Rose challenged old ideas about women in art. Historically, women were often shown as models in paintings, not as the artists themselves. For an artwork called "Models Triptych," she showed three female artists. These artists were famous in their time but were later forgotten. Rose showed them in open frames, like Pandoras "escaping from their boxes." This artwork was about bringing forgotten women artists back into history. In 1984, Rose spent three months at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. She looked for women artists who were missing from the museum's collection. She also found artworks that were thought to be by men but might have been by women.
Accident and New Art Ideas
In 1988, Rose Garrard was in a serious car accident. She had to spend time in the hospital with a broken arm. While recovering, she was inspired to create new art. For an art show in 1988, she created "Out of Line." This art piece included recordings of patients, plaster casts of body parts, and a video of accidents from the news.
The accident also led to a series of drawings called "Talisman." These drawings were based on an ancient text called 'The Thunder, Perfect Mind'. Rose found this text very helpful during her healing. She created art based on the images she imagined from the text.
In the early 1990s, Rose explored new ways of making art. She did artist residencies in Canada at the New Art Gallery in Calgary and the Vancouver Art Gallery. During these residencies, she created art for specific places. She talked with people from the public about their experiences. From these conversations, she created visual art that explored local issues. She used this same approach for her 1994 show, "Archiving my own History," at Cornerhouse.
Return to Malvern and Public Art
In 1995, Rose Garrard moved her art studio from London back to the Malvern Hills. Local newspapers asked for ideas to improve Great Malvern. Rose suggested "The Spring Water Arts Project." This project involved creating a new sculpture trail to find and celebrate lost spring sites in the town.
Among her sculptures created after moving back to Malvern are the Enigma Fountain. This fountain includes a statue of Sir Edward Elgar. It was unveiled by The Duke of York in Great Malvern in 2000. Other works include the Malvhina drinking spout, unveiled in 1998. She also created the Hand of Peace war memorial in Portland stone in Malvern. Her work Women's Work (1998) is in Bilston, Wolverhampton, England. It is made of bronze, Welsh slate, and brick. In 2007, she created the Cascade Gates in welded steel in North Malvern.
Notable Artworks
- “Models Triptych” (1982 – 83), New Hall Art Collection, Murray Edwards College
- Talisman: The Wooden Box From Her Father (1988), Victoria & Albert Museum
Solo Exhibitions
- Incidents in a Garden, Acme Gallery, 1977
- Surveillance, International Performance Symposium, 1980
- The Fall, Women Live, Arnolfini, 1982
- Frames of Mind, Kettles Yard, 1983
- Between Ourselves, Ikon Gallery, 1984
- Openings, Laing Art Gallery, 1985
- Casting Room One, Third Generation of Women Sculptors, Canterbury Festival, 1986
- Redressing the Balance, Neue Gesellschaft fur bildende Kunst, 1987
- Talisman, Louise Hallett Gallery, 1988
- Calgary Conversation, live-art residency, New Art Gallery Calgary, 1991
- Disclosing Dialogues, live-art residency, Vancouver Art Gallery, 1992
- Archiving my own History, documentation of works 1969 > 1994, Cornerhouse, 1994
- Rose Garrard: Arena for Conversation, South London Gallery, 1994
Historian and Author
Rose Garrard became very involved in restoring the local springs and learning about the history of Malvern. Her research in 2006 showed that "well dressing" (decorating wells) has been a tradition in Malvern since the 12th and 13th centuries. In 2001, she started organizing the well dressing event in Malvern. It is now an annual event with over 28 wells being decorated.
As an author, Rose Garrard has written three books about Malvern. Two of them are about the springs. Her book A Malvern Treasury, published in 2010, was written because older history books about the town were no longer available.
Personal Life
Rose Garrard met fellow artist Kerry Trengrove at Birmingham School of Art in 1966. They became friends and later married in 1969. They separated in 1987 and divorced in 1989.
