Helaine Blumenfeld: Tree of Life
Helaine Blumenfeld, OBE, is one of the most esteemed sculptors working in the UK today
Location
Gainsborough's House, 46 Gainsborough Street, Sudbury, Suffolk, CO10 2EU
Telephone
01787 372958- Next Event
- 17th October 12:00am - 6th October 12:00am
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About this event
Thomas Gainsborough and Helaine Blumenfeld, though separated by time, meet in their poetic sensibility, rhythmic fluidity of form, in dream-like imagery and the universal language of beauty.
When the art historian Michael Rosenthal described Gainsborough as “one of the most technically proficient and, at the same time, most experimental artists of his time“, he could have also been describing Blumenfeld today. A master marble carver, testing the limits of her material, Blumenfeld creates impossibly thin, undulating structures through a profound understanding of the boundaries of her materials. Like Gainsborough and his lightbox, Blumenfeld’s luminous works celebrate the light within. In bronze, she works with her foundry in Italy on innovations including experimental patinas using silver nitrate.
Her sculptures often resemble organic, figurative or botanical forms that hover in that tantalising zone between abstraction and figuration. For Gainsborough’s House, there will be three sculptures in the historic garden and one overlooking from inside.
Helaine Blumenfeld, OBE, is one of the most esteemed sculptors working in the UK today. Born in 1942 in New York, she studied philosophy at Columbia University before moving to Paris to train in sculpture at the Ecole de la Grande Chaumière, with Ossip Zadkine. Blumenfeld carves in marble and wood and casts in bronze.
The exhibitions runs May 3, 2025 – January 31, 2026
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About the Venue
Gainsborough’s House is the national centre for Thomas Gainsborough and it holds the most comprehensive collection of his work in a single setting. A varied programme of temporary exhibitions is also on show throughout the year. Visitor’s gift shop, café and garden are also available as part of the museum experience.
Gainsborough’s House is the childhood home of Thomas Gainsborough RA (1727–1788). Today, the permanent collection of Gainsborough's House encompasses the whole career of Thomas Gainsborough, from early portraits and landscapes painted in Suffolk during the 1750s, to later works from his Bath and London periods of the 1760s, 70s and 80s. The collection of works on paper includes drawings by Gainsborough and his contemporaries, as well as prints by or after Gainsborough and other eighteenth-century artists.
In 2019, Gainsborough’s House commenced a £10m building project supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. On 21 November 2022, the museum re-opened to the public after a transformational refurbishment; introducing 3 new exhibition spaces to accompany the original Grade I listed building. The museum is now the largest gallery in Suffolk.
The visitor entrance to Gainsborough’s House is on Weavers Lane and leads into the main gallery. Visitors can view the family house, the new gallery spaces, examples of Gainsborough’s work, alongside specialist exhibitions and the famed, crinkle-crinkle walled garden and Mulberry Tree dating to the early 1600s. The space also has The Watering Place café serving coffees, pastries and light lunches.
For more information about tickets, access or events; please see our website. Visit today! We are open every day from 10:00am – 17:00pm.
