damien hirst

Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield

All, Galleries, West Yorkshire, Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Yorkshire Sculpture Park offers a powerful and curious selection of sculptures in a glorious open air countryside setting. It’s an unusual combination of an artistic adventure and a weekend walk, so your dog can come too.

The Weston restaurant has an interesting lunch menu (£8-12) and classic teatime fare. The Lemon and Raspberry Drizzle cake and a cup of Lemon and Ginger tea went down well after completing the 4-mile circuit.

My favourite bits:

  • A hearty stroll up to the site’s centre past Damien Hirst’ s Myth (pictured),a flayed unicorn, and the half-peeled giant The Virgin Mother.
  • David Smith’s story in the Underground Gallery, told through his elegant and economic blacksmithing (pictured) and his weighty anti-war Medals of Dishonour.
  • An intimidating Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads (pictured) staring down like a disapproving council of aldermen, created by internationally renowned artist/political prisoner Ai Weiwei.
  • A pair of ornate medieval chessmen (pictured), King Hezekiah and Moses doing various unpleasant things to unfortunate snakes.

The scores:

Exhibits: 8/10. World famous names from the contemporary scene and generations past.

Environment: 9/10. A beautiful and unique site, loses a point for its remoteness.

Refreshments: 7/10. Tea and cake perfectly fine, I’ll need to try the lunch menu next time.

Cost & Location: 7/10. Free entry, plus £3.50 to £12 parking… and you’ll need a car!

Overall Score: 7/10.

The links: