'Everywoman' statue unveiled in Trafalgar Square

2 hours ago

News image — The Lady in Blue will sit atop the Fourth Plinth for two years

Getty Images A bronze sculpture of a black woman wearing a vivid lapis lazuli blue dress and matching heels, depicted in mid-stride atop the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square. The National Gallery dome and St Martin-in-the-Fields church are visible under a bright blue sky in the background. — The Lady in Blue will sit atop the Fourth Plinth for two years

A sculpture inspired by a desire to bring a contemporary "everywoman" to Trafalgar Square has been unveiled on London's Fourth Plinth.

Lady In Blue by New York artist Tschabalala Self, which pays homage to a young, metropolitan woman, is the 16th artwork to feature on the plinth since 1998.

The bronze and blue figure replaces Mil Veces un Instante (A Thousand Times in an Instant) by Teresa Margolles.

The statue has been patinated with a pigment refined from Lapis Lazuli, a semi-precious stone that has been used by artists for millennia.

Self said she had set out to put an ordinary contemporary Londoner on a site more usually associated with statues of monarchs and military commanders.

"My work Lady In Blue will bring to Trafalgar Square a woman that many can relate to," the artist said.

"She is not an idol to venerate or a historic figurehead to commemorate.

"She is a woman walking forward into our collective future with ambition and purpose. She is a Londoner, who represents the city's spirit."

EPA/Shuttershock Artist Tschabalala Self wearing a light grey tailored blazer, smiling in front of her sculpture Lady in Blue, which stands out of focus on the Fourth Plinth behind her. — Tschabalala Self's design was picked to feature on the plinth for two years

Self was named as the winning artist in March 2024, alongside Andra Ursuta, whose work is due to go up on the plinth in 2028.

Both were selected by the Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group, an independent panel chaired by the writer and curator Ekow Eshun.

She said: "Lady In Blue transforms the everyday into the monumental.

"Tschabalala Self takes the familiar figure of a woman moving through the city and gives her an extraordinary presence at the heart of London."

Justine Simons, the deputy mayor for culture and the creative industries, described the work as a striking addition to a historic part of the city.

EPA/Shutterstock A wide shot showing Lady in Blue, a sculpture of a woman in a bright blue dress, elevated on the stone Fourth Plinth, overlooking a crowd of visitors gathered in Trafalgar Square with the National Gallery to the left. — The sculpture was unveiled on Thursday morning

Born in New York in 1990, Self works across painting, printmaking and sculpture, often using sewn and printed materials to build up depictions of the human figure.

She held her first institutional exhibition in London and later showed her first major painting series in the city.

The Fourth Plinth was left empty for more than 150 years after money ran out for an equestrian statue of William IV.

The commissioning programme was started by the RSA in 1998 and the first work, Mark Wallinger's Ecce Homo, went up the following year. A new sculpture has been installed roughly every two years since.

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