Morning:
14°c
Angel of the South for 2012
Louise Jury, Evening Standard25.09.07
A sculpture on the scale of Antony Gormley's Angel Of The North is being planned for the London Olympics.
Wilfred Cass, founder of the Goodwood Sculpture Park in West Sussex, is in talks with construction firms and developers about the plans.
Mr Cass, 82, has poured millions of pounds into commissioning large-scale works from the likes of Gormley, Tony Cragg, Anthony Caro and Andy Goldsworthy in the past 15 years.
He is gearing up for the Olympics with an awareness-raising exhibition of models, drawings and full-scale works from the foundation's archive at the Art London fair next month.
The aim is then to concentrate on commissioning sculptures of the highest quality for London for 2012.
"We've got a big Olympics strategy. We're working with developers and other people and have a four-year programme to develop large pieces," he said.
"We fund the thing. There will be no public money involved, so we can have total control and the pieces are really good.
There will be at least one big piece like the Angel of the North."
Mr Cass was one of the pioneers of TV design before setting up the Image Bank photographic agency. The sale of this to Getty netted him the fortune with which he and his wife, Jeannette, set up the Cass Sculpture Foundation in 1992. It has funded around 180 large-scale works of sculpture for display in the 24-acre estate they bought at Goodwood, near Chichester, for the purpose. It has also backed initiatives such as the Fourth Plinth sculptures in Trafalgar Square.
Mr Cass estimated they had spent about £10 million of their own money before the scheme began to pay for itself with the re-sale of work. The exhibition that will be shown at Art London is a snapshot of the history of the Cass Sculpture Foundation.
•Art London 4-8 October, Royal Hospital, Chelsea
