Just before we congratulate the Royal Academy on another stimulating and provocative exhibition, we are confronted in the final room by a group of Page 3 girls. Gustav Metzger has been chosen to pin up the daily page from The Sun for the duration of Modern British Sculpture. The internal curator has declared that perhaps the girls will get word of their cultural following, and respond to the exhibition within their own oeuvre. A reinterpretation of British nostalgia? Or an attempt to exercise the assertion that all press is good press?

Modern British Sculpture presents an opinion on, not a retrospective of, every significant sculptor. Its aim claims to question our notions of ‘British’ and ‘sculpture’, whilst placing these issues within the wider context of global artefact. Despite its immediate vulnerability to criticism, the curators emphasise that they have tackled the subject as best they can, bearing in mind the spatial constrictions of such a huge challenge.

The exhibition traces the evolution of sculpture in Britain, working outwards from London as an artistic and political centre, and highlighting the international dialogue between cause and effect. You may wonder why the Lecture Room is filled with antiques from the British Museum while Jeff Koons and Carl Andre take precedent in the latter part of the display. Nevertheless, Britain must be understood in relation to its neighbours – for how else are we to define ourselves? – and sculpture to its relevant prevailing zeitgeist. Both notions are required to be seen as part of a longer continuum whereby ‘modern’ is always in a state of flux. In other words, do not expect to be spoon-fed any tangible facets, and be prepared to fend for yourself.

The show opens by highlighting the difficult challenge of commemorating life and death, with a reconstruction of the Cenotaph and photographs of Epstein’s extraordinary sculptures for the British Medical Association. This dialogue between abstraction and figuration runs throughout, as does the theme of translation across time and space. Theft by Finding is explored using a range of items from the British Museum and the consequential responses to these by legends such as Hepworth and Gill. Epstein’s monumental Adam – not for the faint-hearted – and Moore’s delicate snake navigate premises of desire and sincerity, whilst in the Establishment Figure an immensely kitsch shrine of Queen Victoria reigns down upon three idealised former presidents of the Royal Academy, to elucidate a stunning relationship between authority and beauty. A disappointing display of oriental ceramics is forgiven, due to the magnificence of the rooms reserved solely for Hepworth, Moore, and Caro’s piece de resistance. Towards the end of the exhibition the realm of sculpture is forced to reside in the nexus of Land Art, Minimalism and YBA Conceptualism and the spectator suddenly feels rather led astray.

Modern British Sculpture has intended an experimental attempt, rather than an authoritative appraisal, to redefine our preconceived impressions. The success of any work appears to lie in the means by which it poses a problem and thus the exhibition argues for the urgency of dialogue and has certainly succeeded in becoming the talk of the town.

Until Apr 7

AMY BUBB