CHATSWORTH.- Sotheby’s is delighted to announce a major exhibition of Modern and Contemporary sculpture to be held at Chatsworth in Derbyshire in autumn 2006, entitled Beyond Limits. The magnificent landscape setting of Chatsworth House, created by Capability Brown, is arguably the finest in Britain, and it is against this extraordinarily vast and inspiring backdrop that the works by artists such as Jean Dubuffet, Antony Gormley, Aristide Maillol and James Turrell will be displayed. All the works exhibited will be available for private sale. Robin Woodhead, Chief Executive of Sotheby’s Europe and Asia, said: "We are enormously excited at the prospect of this exhibition, which we anticipate will be both a landmark event and a truly unforgettable experience for those who witness it. There are, of course, many beautiful gardens and landscapes in Britain but few can compare with those at Chatsworth and so, while we explored many possibilities when seeking a venue for the exhibition, the magnificence of the grounds at Chatsworth marked it out as the obvious choice." While the splendor of the grounds will enhance the resonance and expressive power of the pieces displayed, the exhibition will add a significant new and exciting dimension to the public’s experience of Chatsworth. Chatsworth has long been open to the public, and the Chatsworth House Trust (see notes), which manages the upkeep and restoration of the house, collection, garden and surrounding landscape, and with which Sotheby’s has arranged the venture, sees the exhibition as a means of further enhancing the experience of those who visit the house. In the tradition of his forbears, the Duke of Devonshire is himself a keen collector and supporter of the modern and contemporary art of his day. As such, he sees the arrangement between the Chatsworth House Trust and Sotheby’s as an exciting venture: “The landscape here looks so natural, but is in fact almost entirely man-made, so placing the sculpture in that environment should be quite challenging. The garden will look marvelous at that time of year, and we’re really excited to introduce a new audience to Chatsworth – and introduce Chatsworth’s traditional audience to something new.”

Among the contemporary works in the exhibition will be a monumental sculpture by Jean Dubuffet, entitled L’arbre biplan from 1968. Standing more than five metres high, it is one of only ten monumental sculptures made by the artist during his lifetime, six of which are now in museums. This piece is one of the four remaining in private hands and was itself originally in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. It is entirely fitting that the exhibition will feature Antony Gormley’s Angel of the North given its iconic nature in the north of England. The piece is a 1:20 scale maquette of the Gateshead Angel of the North, which is Britain's largest sculpture, standing at 20 metres tall as it overlooks the Gateshead valley. Conceived in 1995, in the present work, like the larger work, the encompassing wings are angled slightly forward to create a sense of embrace. Although many meanings have been ascribed to the work, Gormley has ensured that there is no fixed interpretation. “The Angel doesn’t represent anything. It is a paradoxical image,” he explained. “But, poetically it suggests many things.” Dale Chihuly’s extraordinary boat sculpture, will transform the canal pond at Chatsworth, establishing a direct and immediate interaction between art and nature. The monumental, sculptural form, is illuminated by its intense, vibrant colour and subtle linear decoration. Within a 30-foot canoe, Chihuly will place his magical scarlet-coloured glass objects. James Turrell’s Raemar Blue is considered one of his most important and earliest ‘Shallow Space Constructions’ that combines architecture, sculpture, light and atmosphere. Dubbed the ‘sculptor of light’ for his physical fusion of light, architecture and experience, Turrell explained: “Light is not so much something that reveals, as it is itself the revelation.” Executed in 1968, a seminal year which saw Turrell expanding the confines of his earlier illusory projections of space into actual constructed environments, Turrell here creates an immersive spatial environment that plays with the experience of perception and effect of light within space. Works by more than twenty artists will feature in Beyond Limits. Alongside Dubuffet, Gormley and Chihuly will be sculptures by the likes of Barry Flanagan, Marc Quinn, Lynn Chadwick, Aristide Maillol and Fernando Botero. The exhibition will take place in the 105 acre Chatsworth garden between September 8 and October 27 2006.