Looking Up: Helaine Blumenfeld – Canary Wharf, London

A review of Helaine Blumenfeld exhibition Looking Up, currently on view across the Canary Wharf Estate. Given the current scarcity of art on public display, I wish they had made more of the works.

Exhibition Extended, But Only In Part

Not so long after visiting Canary Wharf to see Connected by Light, I am back to see another outdoor art exhibition. This one, Looking Up, is of works by artist Helaine Blumenfeld OBE. The exhibition originally opened in March 2020, so has been extended considerably. There were originally two parts to the exhibition: the outdoor works we will see today, and a number of smaller works on view in the lobby of One Canada Square. The indoor selection is no longer on display, having ended in November. The outdoor selection is, however, on view until May 2021, so there is still time to check it out.

The exhibition guide gives a sense of how the collaboration between Blumenfeld and Canary Wharf evolved. One work, Fortuna, was already on permanent display in Jubilee Park. The Canary Wharf Group commissioned a second, Metamorphosis, to sit in front of one of new residential towers at Wood Wharf. The rest of the exhibition complements these two works, demonstrating Blumenfeld’s mastery of different media. The guide explains her process: Blumenfeld moves from clay to working models to monumental works in stone, bronze, marble or wood. It’s a shame I wasn’t able to see the smaller indoor section of the exhibition to get a feel for this process.

Blumenfeld was born in 1942 in New York. She completed a PhD in Moral Philosophy (wow!) at Columbia University in 1964. It was also in the 1960s that she began to study sculpture, initially under Ossip Zadkine in Paris. Since 1970, she has worked from a studio near Cambridge and another in Italy. Her work initially focused on abstracted figures, but the works on display here are more about movement and the natural world.

Art in the Corporate Space

I wrote recently about Sculpture in the City, and my mixed feelings about it. On the one hand I think it’s good when office workers (and other urban dwellers) have easy opportunities to experience art. These corporate commissions also provide income and exposure for artists – with public funding for the arts likely down for many years to come, this is also important. However, these types of exhibitions are often easy to pass by. This is how I felt about Looking Up. I had noticed a few of the works when I came to see Connected by Light. But there is nothing to help interpret the sculptures other than small plaques with basic details of artist, title and medium. So unless you make an effort to look at them like I did, they risk existing solely in the background.

Is that so much of an issue? I’m not sure. A background of high quality artworks is no bad thing. But I would have liked to see a little more – a panel here or there, a podcast to listen to as you wander around. These sorts of things are relatively easy to achieve and can help visitors to get more from all the effort that goes into mounting an exhibition.

And What About The Art Itself?

But as someone who was making that extra effort, what did I think? Well I liked the selection of works. There were only about 10 altogether, but they gave a good sense of the different media in which Blumenfeld works. Whether in marble or cast metal, the sculptures were remarkably light and airy, as if a slight breeze would stir them up. The flowing shapes also look completely different from different angles, so it’s worth taking a moment to walk around them.

Out of the four spaces, I thought the installation in Cabot Square (second block of pictures, first two images) was the most effective. The sculptures in Westferry Circus and Jubilee Park don’t have as much space to be seen to best advantage. And Wood Wharf is still under construction so gives off ‘uninhabited urban wasteland’ vibes. I’m sure it will look better once people start returning to Canary Wharf. But in Cabot Square, Illusion (2018) has plenty of space, and is also a nice counterpoint to the monumental bronze works by Henry Moore and Lynn Chadwick.

So again in terms of art that can be seen right now, I appreciate the efforts of the Canary Wharf Group to make Looking Up available. I enjoyed learning more about Helaine Blumenfeld’s work. And in terms of art exhibitions in corporate spaces, it wasn’t bad. If you are local to Canary Wharf, it is a good way to structure a walk around the estate. But unless you are feeling as art-starved as I am, perhaps not the subject of a specific trip.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 3/5

Looking Up until 31 May 2021

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