Blenheim Art Foundation
[2] The programme continued in 2015 with an exhibition by Lawrence Weiner, followed by Michelangelo Pistoletto in 2016, Jenny Holzer in 2017,[3][4] and Yves Klein in 2018, Maurizio Cattelan in 2019,[5] and Cecily Brown in 2020.
It was the "biggest UK retrospective to date" by Chinese artist and social activist Ai Weiwei, which presented more than 50 new and iconic artworks throughout the Palace and its grounds.
[9] Due to visitor figures, the exhibition Ai Weiwei at Blenheim Palace was extended for twice the planned duration, finally closing 26 April 2015.
[13] The exhibition displayed works by American artist and founding figure of Conceptual Art, Lawrence Weiner, who has been using language as a sculptural medium throughout his fifty year career to make interventions into outdoor and indoor spaces.
[17] Works were integrated throughout the Palace interiors, such as on the ceiling of the Long Library which featured Weiner's More Than Enough (2015), and Far Enough Away As To Come Readily To Hand (2015) in the 1st State Room that replaced part of the tapestry of the Battle of Blenheim.
The show spanned Pistoletto's prolific fifty-year career, exhibiting painting, sculpture, and new, site-specific installations within the palace and the surrounding grounds.
The breathtaking Third Paradise symbol, wrapped in Pistoletto's signature rags, hovered above the Great Hall, calling for a reassessment of current society and a more harmonious, unified future.
The exhibition showcased the breadth of Holzer's practice, from paintings, stoneworks, and electronic signs, to installations of black mondo grass and displays of human bones.
[1] SOFTER: Jenny Holzer at Blenheim Palace was recognised as 'Best Public Exhibition' at the 2018 Global Fine Art Awards (GFAA) black-tie gala at the Harold Pratt Mansion in New York City.
It explored concepts of beauty, sensibility and the sublime, offering visitors a unique opportunity to view the artist's seminal artworks in the landmark setting of the World Heritage eighteenth-century Palace.
Pigment Tables in IKB, gold and pink were shown in the 3rd State Room, while Relief Portraits of the artist Arman and composer Claude Pascal, Klein's childhood friends, were installed in the Long Library.
[28] This was Cattelan's first and most significant solo exhibition in the UK in twenty years and featured new works specially made for the show alongside a number of his most iconic pieces such as Novecento (1997), La Nona Ora (1999) and Him (2001) displayed throughout the 18th century Palace, engaging with Blenheim's history and unique setting.
The exhibition also notably featured America (2016) – one of Cattelan's most recognisable works – a solid 18-Karat gold toilet which was installed inside the Palace, adjacent to Sir Winston Churchill's birth room.
Showcasing over thirty never-seen-before site-specific artworks, Brown offered both a sentimental celebration and a poignant critique of the romantic fantasies surrounding the stately home and British heritage in the popular imagination.
Drawing on traditional painting genres often found in country houses and responding directly to the Spencer-Churchill family's own collection of artworks, textiles and artefacts, Brown offered charged reinterpretations of the powerful imagery and narratives that still inform perceptions of England today.
The exhibition included a series dedicated to the hunt, Brown's distinctive strokes depicting animals in tussle in the British woodlands, and a number of battle paintings that evoked Blenheim's military history and called attention to the martial motifs throughout the Palace interiors and architecture.
Known for his artworks using the human body, voice, and social interaction, for this project Sehgal presented a complex, roaming choreography imagined for Blenheim, involving more than 50 local participants.
[34] The exhibition took place entirely outdoors: a decision inspired both by the natural beauty of Capability Brown's landscape architecture at Blenheim, and a response to the extended closure of cultural sites due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
