Barry Flanagan is best known for his dynamic, often monumental depictions of animals that fuse the everyday and the imaginary. Although his career began using various materials, it is these later bronzes that came to characterise his work. Flanagan drew on the spirit of different creatures, emphasising their fantastical and folkloric associations, and showing them dancing or with musical instruments.

Hares became a main theme of Flanagan’s work in the 1970s after he witnessed a leaping hare on the Sussex Downs. He developed the theme over the next 30 years, giving his hares an energy, litheness and character that echo human emotions and traits.

Large Nijinski on Anvil Point takes inspiration from Rodin’s figurine of the Russian ballet dancer, Vaslav Nijinsky, who was celebrated for his enormous leaps and evocative choreography. Flanagan blends the animate with the inanimate, the human-made with the natural to challenge our perceptions of the natural and human worlds. The solid form of the anvil is contrasted against the lightness of the hare, with its worked metal capturing the animal’s vitality.

Large Nijinski on Anvil Point by Barry Flanagan has returned to YSP – the sculpture was last on display here in 2009. Look out for the hare balanced on a giant anvil in Lower Park, near to Bretton Hall.

Barry Flanagan (1941–2009) was born in North Wales and studied at Birmingham College of Art and Crafts and St. Martin’s School of Art, London. In 1982 he represented Britain at the 40th Venice Biennale. He received an OBE and was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 1991. Flanagan had a significant exhibition at YSP in 1992 and a number of his works were displayed on the Formal Terrace in 2010-11.