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The Sculpture in the Home Exhibitions: Reconstructing the Home and Family in Post-war Britain

Published as no. 60 in the HMI’s series of Essays on Sculpture, this illustrated book accompanied the HMI exhibition Sculpture in the Home: re-staging a post-war Initiative (October 2008 – January 2009), which was conceived and curated by the author. The exhibition recreated the innovative appearance of the London-showings of the Arts Council’s 1950 and 1953 Sculpture in the Home touring exhibitions, which encouraged visitors to purchase exhibits for their own homes by displaying them in simulated domestic settings (selected by the Council of Industrial Design). The HMI exhibition was favourably reviewed in the scholarly and popular press (including The Burlington Magazine, The Independent, and The Yorkshire Post) and the curator’s reflections on the exhibition were published in Apollo Magazine (November 2008). The project originated in a paper delivered to the Sculpture and Design conference at the University of Brighton in 2005.

The book offers the first detailed account of the 'Sculpture in the Home' exhibitions, identifying the types of exhibit, the high proportion of female sculptors, and, through reproduction of unpublished exhibition plans and photographs, the unusual appearance of the exhibitions. It provides a scholarly account of the aesthetic and social context for the growth of public and critical interest in the domestic function of modernist sculpture in the ‘home-centred society’ of post-war Britain, uncovering an aspect of British sculpture which has been overshadowed by gallery and public sculpture of the period.

The high standard of scholarship was achieved by research at the National Art Library, Tate Gallery Archive and Design Council Archive, and extensive study of the secondary literature of the post-war modernisation of interior design, domestic space and gendered familial roles. The sources are identified and acknowledged in footnotes. The book underwent a thorough process of editorial discussion and revision by staff at the HMI.