Land of Lads, Land of Lashes | Thaddeus Ropac
This group show in Thaddeus Ropac’s very grand London space centres on three women Minimalist artists who worked in the 1970s. The one who stood out to me was Rosemarie Castoro, whose work gave the show its title.
Land of Lads, Land of Lashes refers to two sculptures in the big room on the upper floor. They’re made of epoxy, a type of polymer. They’re coloured deep black. And they have vaguely organic, even anthropomorphic, form.
There are two sets of these strange black creatures: one looking like ladders, the other like eyelashes. Both look like they are on the march. Throughout her career, Castoro used blacks and whites. The epoxy sculptures date from a short period in the mid-70s, after which the artist moved to other materials, including concrete, steel and tree branches. The work was resolutely abstract and monochrome to the end though: Castoro died in 2015.
It’s the second downbeat show in a row from this very grand gallery, following their - to me, at least - alienating and baffling Beuys retrospective. Posh Spice bumped into me with surprising force at that one a couple of weeks ago, visiting from, I guess, her shop a couple of doors away. She didn’t apologise.
Land of Lads, Land of Lashes is at Thaddeus Ropac (London). 25 June - 11 August 2018.