The Cass Sculpture Foundation was a charitable commissioning body based in Goodwood,

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England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. The Foundation's 26-acre grounds were home to an ever-changing display of 80 monumental sculptures, all of which were available for sale with the proceeds going directly to artists. The Foundation was a self-sufficient body reliant on sales of commissioned sculpture and visitor entrance fees. After a review in 2020 the Foundation's Trustees made the decision to wind up the foundation and the park was closed. The Foundation's archive of drawings and maquettes was due to be donated to the nearby

Pallant House Gallery Pallant House Gallery is an art gallery in Chichester, West Sussex, England. It houses one of the best collections of 20th-century British art in the world. History The Gallery's collection is founded on works left to the city of Chichester by ...

Founding and funding

Inspired by their own extensive collection of works from artists such as

Elisabeth Frink Dame Elisabeth Jean Frink (14 November 1930 – 18 April 1993) was an English sculptor and printmaker. Her ''Times'' obituary noted the three essential themes in her work as "the nature of Man; the 'horseness' of horses; and the divine in ...

and

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract art, abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. As well as sculpture, Mo ...

, Wilfred and Jeannette Cass embarked on their own journey to establish a revolutionary new model for a sculpture foundation. After initial years of research and visits to other sculpture parks such as the Kröller-Müller in the Netherlands, Louisiana in Denmark and Hakone in Japan the Cass Sculpture Foundation was fully established in 1992. The Foundation commissioned over 400 important works from both emerging and established artists. Previous commissions include works by

Anthony Caro Sir Anthony Alfred Caro (8 March 192423 October 2013) was an English abstract sculptor whose work is characterised by assemblages of metal using ' found' industrial objects. His style was of the modernist school, having worked with Henry Moor ...

Tony Cragg Sir Anthony Douglas Cragg (born Liverpool 9 April 1949) is an Anglo-German sculptor, resident in Wuppertal, Germany since 1977. Early life and training Tony Cragg was born in Liverpool."Tony Cragg." ''Contemporary Artists''. Farmington Hills, ...

Andy Goldsworthy Andy Goldsworthy (born 26 July 1956) is an English sculptor, photographer, and environmentalist who produces site-specific sculptures and land art situated in natural and urban settings. Early life Goldsworthy was born in Cheshire on 26 Ju ...

, Marc Quinn,

Kiki Smith Kiki Smith (born January 18, 1954) is a West German-born American artist whose work has addressed the themes of sex, birth and regeneration. Her figurative work of the late 1980s and early 1990s confronted subjects such as AIDS and gender, whil ...

, and Rachel Whiteread. The ambition is that the new commissions will act as a catalyst for sculptors, sending them in new directions and creating opportunities elsewhere. The Foundation marked its twenty-year anniversary in 2012 with the London exhibition, 'Tony Cragg at Exhibition Road'. Coinciding with the Cultural Olympiad, this exhibition displayed 12 works from the British artist,

along Exhibition Road and its accompanying cultural institutions including the V & A, Science and Natural History Museum. 2012 also saw the Foundation launch a number of new international partnerships including the State Hermitage Museum in Russia, The Creative India Foundation in Hyderabad, India and the Yellow River Arts Centre in Yinchuan, China.

Trustees

* Wilfred Cass - Founder * Jeannette Cass - Founder * Mark Cass - Chairman * Derek Pullen * Dr Wenny Teo * Sir Michael Peat — ''Private secretary to

Charles, Prince of Wales Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to a ...

'' * Earl of March & Kinrara * David Solomon

Commissioning

CASS was an authority on the commissioning and exhibiting of large-scale sculpture. The organization's charitable objectives were met through the sale of its sculptures. Once a work was sold CASS split the profit between the artist and the next commission thereby ensuring that it maintained a rolling collection of new works. The commissioning process could take between 1 and 5 years from conception to completion. During the process the artists contributed a

maquette A ''maquette'' (French word for scale model, sometimes referred to by the Italian names ''plastico'' or ''modello'') is a scale model or rough draft of an unfinished sculpture. An equivalent term is ''bozzetto'', from the Italian word for "sketc ...

and works on paper to the Foundation's archive for educational purposes Through meeting fabrication costs, and other additional costs (including installation and marketing), the Foundation funded artists to work on a very large scale making works several meters high. The Foundation encouraged pioneering and experimental works that challenged the creative processes of each artist in order to further their careers.

Artists

Sculptors displaying works at the Cass Sculpture Foundation have included:

Kenneth Armitage William Kenneth Armitage (18 July 1916 – 22 January 2002) was a British sculptor known for his semi-abstract bronzes. Life Armitage was born in Leeds on July 18, 1916, the youngest of three children studied at the Leeds College of Art and t ...

, Lynn Chadwick,

, Paul Day, Richard Deacon,

Antony Gormley Sir Antony Mark David Gormley (born 30 August 1950) is a British sculptor. His works include the ''Angel of the North'', a public sculpture in Gateshead in the north of England, commissioned in 1994 and erected in February 1998; '' Another ...

, Thomas Heatherwick, Shirazeh Houshiary, Allen Jones, Phillip King,

Bryan Kneale Robert Bryan Charles Kneale (born 19 June 1930) is a Manx artist and sculptor, described by BBC News Online as "one of the Isle of Man's best known artists." Biography Born in the island's capital, Douglas, Kneale studied painting at the Doug ...

Eduardo Paolozzi Sir Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi (, ; 7 March 1924 – 22 April 2005) was a Scottish artist, known for his sculpture and graphic works. He is widely considered to be one of the pioneers of pop art. Early years Eduardo Paolozzi was born on 7 March ...

, Marc Quinn,

, Gavin Turk, Rachel Whiteread,

Bill Woodrow Bill Woodrow (born 1 November 1948) is a British sculptor. Early years and education Bill Woodrow was born on 1 November 1948 near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. He received his education at the Winchester College of Art (1967–1968), the Ce ...

, Manfred Kielnhofer, Jesse Wine, and David Worthington.

References

External links