Barry Flanagan OBE, RA

New Art Centre, Roche Court, Salisbury
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2004

Marianne Hartigan, 'The Living Museum', Cara, May-June 2001, discussed pp. 68-75
Alan Wilkinson & Graham Murrell, Within the landscape, Salisbury, 2004, illustration of another cast p. 7
Robin Marchesi, Barry Flanagan Poet of the Building Site, Dublin, 2011, illustration of another cast in colour
Marguerite Colgan; Rosy Wilson; Maureen Perkins; Elizabeth O'Carroll; Gerry Sheridan & Judy Russell, Poems written in response to the exhibition Barry Flanagan: Silâns, Dublin, 2012, another cast illustrated in colour p. 15

Drummer shows Flanagan's artistic vision at its best; the hare's animated form perfectly articulates the rich theatrical possibilities of his chosen subject, the hare, which occupied the artist's imagination for over twenty years. In the present work, the hare is portrayed at its most confident and proud; the animal strides along, the drum its battle cry. This marching hare epitomises Flanagan's expressive play with anthropomorphism. The artist's early notebook sketches and etchings of various fowl and domestic pets experimentally used animals as vehicles for the direct and economical display of human attributes, but it was not until this interest coincided with Flanagan's return to bronze casting in 1979 that the theme took on primary focus in his work. This change also marked a departure from the abstract and theoretical 'soft forms' of the 1960s and 1970s, as the latter part of Flanagan's career was dominated by representational work. Especially in his hares, Flanagan sought to push the definitional boundaries of figurative art and expand upon established rhetorical modes. These works became increasingly monumental, and the towering nature of the present piece, not only in terms of its size but also in its bold upright alertness, is a significant confrontation to the observer's steadfast verticality.