About the Artwork

Untitled 2014 is from Daniel Silver’s monumental Rock Formations series. It is a semi-figurative interpretation of the human form, made simply from two roughly hewn pieces of marble which references the work of Brancusi.

The art of ancient Greece is particularly important in Silver’s practice and these works have evolved from the study of statues and busts of the ancient world. Such objects possess an intense clarity of purpose, a purpose largely lost to us but one which would have been instantly familiar to their contemporary audiences. Silver sees them now as the products of making and re-making; by the original artist, by the weathering of time and by their re-presentation as pieces of history. Silver’s sculptures call us to examine our own connection to the images of heroes, warriors and myths, and makes them recognizable once more.

Year: 2014


Image courtesy of the Artist and Frith Street Gallery, London. Photo © Nick Turpin

Material

Carrara marble, concrete

Dimensions

222 x 80 x 65 cm

Artist Biography

Daniel Silver

The sculptures of Daniel Silver (b. 1972, London) explore the many forms and presences of the human body. His practice is influenced by the art of the ancient world, modernism, Sigmund Freud and psychoanalytic theories. Silver uses concrete, bronze, marble, stone, wood and clay and his works often manifest as monuments or fragments. He uses sculpture to explore what it is to be human, both physically and psychologically. Daniel Silver's 2013 installation Dig, an Artangel commission, took place in a derelict London cinema, where he presented an imagined archaeological dig of sculptures looking both ancient and futuristic, conceived by the artist as a ‘history of sculpture’. In 2019, a commission for London’s Bloomberg Space resulted in a set of monumental, figurative works that spoke of the artist’s fascination with psychology as well as his profound interest in ancient cultures. For his 2022 solo exhibition at Fruitmarket, Edinburgh, Silver developed a series of new works using oil paint and ceramic and he has continued to explore and combine these two seemingly contradictory mediums since. The artist’s new busts are often inspired by Greco Roman sculpture; such artifacts are a persistent influence, drawn as he is to their incomplete nature. The painted surfaces of the ceramics allow his sculptures to speak in a new way, one encounters them not just as objects but also as surfaces; the paint makes them more specific and creates a certain restless energy. Silver makes these works in ‘families’ so there is a relationship between them, yet they can exist in other scenarios as well, reflecting and communicating in different ways, alone or together, depending on the context.