The estate of Heather Jansch (1948-2021) announces exhibitions
The sculptor, Heather Jansch, became internationally known for driftwood and bronze equine sculptures. She had a long, substantial career and she was primarily based in Devon, UK.
Heather Jansch’s main dealer continues to be the Diehl Gallery in Jackson, Wyoming. Jackson is a popular tourist destination due to nearby ski resorts Jackson Hole Mountain, Snow King Mountain, and Grand Targhee, as well as Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park. Jackson is also, very much, horse country, and each February draws crowds to the Cutter Races – the only thoroughbred race on a groomed snow track in the USA. Nearby the National Museum of Wildlife Art houses works by Andy Warhol and Georgia O’Keeffe in its permanent collection.
“It has been a tremendous honor to work with and represent Heather Jansch in the United States for the past seven years,” said Mariam Diehl. “She was a gifted artist and her talent for forming horses and other animals from driftwood was unique and remarkable.
“Her ability to see life in the dead branches she used as her primary medium was frankly astounding.”
In the UK, another exhibition of Jansch’s work, at Lympstone Manor, the Michelin-starred hotel overlooking the Exe estuary, provides an opportunity to see some of her work in the UK ahead of a more formal retrospective.
Jansch’s lifelong focus and passion was studying, drawing and sculpting horses. Startlingly accurate musculoskeletal representation was fused with an exquisite sense of the horse’s grace of movement.
Unusually for an artwork, one of Jansch’s life-sized horse sculptures is on permanent display in the zoology department at MUSE, the Renzo Piano–designed museum of science in Northern Italy.
In addition to horses, Heather Jansch sculptures also represent stags, female dancers, warriors and elephants. Alongside her three dimensional work, she made paintings, drawings and prints throughout her life.
Originally represented by Courcoux & Courcoux in the mid 1980s, Jansch’s sculptures are now to be found in the collections of contemporary art collectors, royal families, and horse-loversaround the world.
The selling exhibition at Lympstone Manor is the result of a longstanding relationship between the Jansch Studio and the Michelin starred establishment run by chef-patron, Michael Caines.
“Lympstone has one of the best views in Devon, it’s spectacular,” says Kieron Jansch, Heather’s son, who trained as a sculptor before pursuing a career in film. “We are delighted to have such a significant body of her work shown near her home in Devon, which she loved.”
Lympstone’s Heather Jansch exhibition continues through into spring 2022, and includes a significant number of bronze and driftwood sculptures, ranging from small table pieces to life-sized horses.