When Dora Gordine died in 1991 leaving her Studio House to the nation, many people, including museum curators, assumed she had been dead for many years. How did an artist described by art critic Jan Gordon in The Observer in 1938 as ‘very possibly becoming the finest woman sculptor in the world’ disappear from view?

S2 Ep2: Sculpting Lives: Veronica Ryan


Sculpting Lives is a podcast series written and presented by Jo Baring (Director of the Ingram Collection of Modern British &amp; Contemporary Art) and Sarah Victoria Turner (Deputy Director at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art in London).



Dame Barbara Hepworth, Dame Elisabeth Frink, Kim Lim, Phyllida Barlow and Rana Begum – some of the most globally well-known British artists are women sculptors. Conversely, the profession and practice of sculpture was seen by many throughout the twentieth century (and before) to be very much a man’s world. Often using heavy and hard materials, sculpture was not typically viewed as suitable for women artists. Series one explores the lives and careers of these five women who worked (and are still working) against these preconceptions, forging successful careers and contributing in groundbreaking ways to the histories of sculpture and art. Series two features episodes on Dora Gordine, Gertrude Hermes, Veronica Ryan, Alison Wilding and Cathie Pilkington. At a moment when public sculpture is the subject of contentious debate, the final episode of the second series focuses on questions of gender, public sculpture and display, and explores women’s representation – both as subjects and artists – in our public spaces and exhibitions.
Each episode is recorded in places that are significant for the women sculptors featured – their studios, as well as galleries and public places where their work is on display – and includes new interviews with curators, friends, family and the artists themselves, creating intimate soundscapes of their private and public worlds.




The @SculptingLives Instagram feed contains more information about the podcast and the artists and artworks featured in it.




Written and hosted by: Jo Baring and Sarah Turner
Produced by: Clare Lynch
Research by: Isabelle Mooney (Series One) &amp; Chloe Nahum (Series Two)
Music by: Pauline Oliveros, [Silence]

Visual identity by: Vanessa Fowler-Kendall




This podcast has been made possible through support from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.




We are also extremely grateful to Art UK and National Life Stories: Artists' Lives (British Library).