Eva Rothschild

Wandering Palm
2011
Aluminium, patent leather and Jesmonite
255 x 236 x 85 cm
Purchased with aid from the Art Fund and the Contemporary Art Society, 2011 © Courtesy the artist. Photography Stuart Whipps

Wandering Palm, by the Irish sculptor Rothschild, was the first work purchased for Wakefield’s collection since the opening of The Hepworth Wakefield in 2011. It was specially created by the artist for Hot Touch, the gallery’s inaugural exhibition.

Rothschild has described her work as ‘magical modernism’, as it is often visually reminiscent of minimalist sculpture from the 1960s, with its simple geometric forms and industrially produced materials, but imbued with a sense of the magical or mystical.

The tension here of the bowing trunk and the sheer physicality of a work standing over 2.5 metres tall is for the artist ‘about creating something experiential – visual, physical, spatial’.