Phyllida Barlow: Unscripted review – exhilarating glimpses

Hauser & Wirth, Somerset
This is the retrospective the artist never had in her lifetime, including her last sculpture series. Despite the skilful curation, visitors will yearn for Barlow’s special touch

Phyllida Barlow once said that making sculpture had to be adventurous. “Almost on the edge of being beyond my control,” she said. Almost. Whatever the chaos, she was still in charge. Quite what happens when an artist was scheduled to do a show but is no longer with us to make it is the central dilemma running through Phyllida Barlow: Unscripted, which has just opened at Hauser & Wirth Somerset. It is the first major survey exhibition of Barlow’s work since her death last March, the retrospective she had not had.

Curated with Barlow’s studio staff by former Tate Modern director Frances Morris, the show opens with six statement works from four different decades. They are mid-sized pieces that you can easily walk around, installed soberly, in a bid to get you to draw connections between Barlow’s oeuvre and the art history that so readily sprang from her fingers. It is a bit of an “if you know, you know” setup, though, which is a shame. Still, seeing these important Barlows up close is a thrill.