‘Acrobat’ is a monumental sculpture, created in 2001 by Allen Jones in painted steel and stands 13m x 12m outside the back entrance of the headquarters of Glaxo, on the Great West Road, Brentford alongside the canal.
We parked in the Boston Manor car park and walked through the park at the back of Glaxo’s building, down towards the canal. As we approached the back entrance, we spotted the bright yellow sculpture through the wire mesh fence:
We crossed over the canal bridge and could see the Acrobat across the canal doing a spectacular, backward, crab-like summersault, with head down and one arm splayed in the air.
The beautiful, modern, glass Glaxo building provided the perfect setting for the Acrobat, with its clean lines in glass.
The raindrops and the reflection were captured in the canal as we gazed at it from the canal path on the other side. This sculpture really does work against this fantastic building.
Allen Jones is a sculptor, printmaker and painter, born in Southampton, and who studied at the Hornsey College of Art and the Royal College of Art in the late 1950s and along with other students including David Hockney, changed British art with unconventional and irreverent work based in popular culture.
He attracted attention in the swinging sixties with statues depicting semi-naked women acting as furniture, ‘Hatstand, Table and Chair’ (1969) which inspired at least one set in Stanley Kubrick's classic movie A Clockwork Orange (1971).
He has remained central to British art and his works are in many public places.
You can see more of his work on:
