New Sculptures Glenys Barton

This publication was produced in 2004 to showcase Glenys Barton's work used in the British film Enduring Love, directed by Roger Michell with screenwriter Joe Penhall, based on the novel of the same name by Ian McEwan. 

I was first shown photographs of Glenys' work by my friend the sculptor Ron Mueck, who I had consulted about the film version of Enduring Love. A key moment in the story required a character to stumble upon a sculpture ... of himself. A sculpture that had to be instantly recognisable to us all.

Usually in films the prop department lash something up with string and plaster of paris, and the artist's atelier is improbably dressed with a wild assortment of shiny lumps and ill-matched figurines from the prop-hire houses. What I wanted was to hijack the entire oeuvre of a proper figurative sculptor and insert Sam Morton into its midst: finding Glenys was a glorious and happy stroke.

All the sculpture that you see in the film is her own, including three pieces commissioned especially for the film. Not only is her work wonderfully precise, penetrative and shrewd, but it runs counter to the usual movie stereotype of a wildly untidy sculptress throwing lumps of clay around a chaotic studio whilst chewing on a gitane. 

For us the collaboration was fascinating and fruitful. - Roger Michell, Director of Enduring Love