“GO LARGE or go home” could be the unofficial motto of country-house summer shows. Rolling front lawns cry out for monumental pieces in concrete and bronze, while inside it appears that only large-scale installations in primary colours or miles of neon, or both, can hold their own in vast silk-lined salons and panelled enfilades.
At Houghton Hall’s retrospective for Stephen Cox, “Myth”, some of the sculptor’s work fulfils this unwritten remit to command space, but, especially within the house, smaller pieces reveal the delicacy of stones such as porphyry, for which Cox’s practice is renowned.
Having attended church schools in Bristol, the 79-year-old artist describes himself as a Christian. “The advanced nature of Christianity in Western society enables people to make decisions for themselves and move forward. There is liberation.” Houghton’s owner, David, the 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley, first encountered the sculptor’s work in 1999 outside Siena Cathedral.
Cox’s work in English churches includes the reredos, altar table, and font at the rebuilt St Paul’s, Harringay, and the altar in St Anselm’s Chapel, Canterbury Cathedral, winner of the 2007-08 Art and Christianity Award for Art in a Religious Context. Made of Verde Aosta marble, the altar was commissioned by the people of Aosta, St Anselm’s birthplace. Cox’s affinity with his material is evident in the white seams rising out from the altar’s dark centre, mirroring each other against the green marble background.
At Houghton, the artist’s interest in pairs and symmetry can be seen in the oar-blade-shaped Lancia Pieces, and more figurative Riven Gemini, both made of Egyptian alabaster. The alabaster’s coffee-and-cream veining contrasts with the Saloon’s claret velvet wall hangings and black and white fireplace with fluted columns. There is further material contrast in Riven Gemini’s front and back aspects, the front bearing the horizontal sedimentary marks of the Egyptian desert, while the rear view’s mottled, protean pattern suggests the human body.
Gemini Basins in sparkling purple porphyry shows Cox’s interest in pairs in a more practical form. He says that small-bowl sculptures have a special place in his work. “Seen as libation bowls, they have a symbolism in the interface between the everyday object and the spiritual, between the secular and the transcendent.”
Reflecting on his chosen geological materials — Imperial porphyry, once solely for the use of Roman emperors, Hammamat breccia, and Kephren diorite, associated with the Pharaohs, together with diorite and alabaster — Cox says: “There’s a pictoriality to them, it’s not just doing the bathroom floor.”
The spare monochromatic decorative palette of William Kent’s Stone Hall sets the scene for Chrysalis (1989-91), a floor-bound monolith, still bearing the chisel marks of the Roman stoneworkers who mined porphyry’s only source, in the Egyptian mountain of Mons Pophyrites. The phrase “born in the purple” reflects the stone’s use in Imperial Roman birth chambers.
Cox has maintained a studio in southern India for decades. His long association with the subcontinent is reflected in the porphyry Lance of St Thomas. According to the Syrian Christian tradition, Thomas the Apostle was martyred by a spear in Chennai in the first century. Near by, the Sword of St George combines a porphyry blade with an alabaster and basalt hilt.
In Sir Robert Walpole’s personal library, the Griddle of St Lawrence is displayed on a delicate side table. Polished rectangular purple slabs. separated by even blocks of white stone, symbolise the gridiron, the means of the saint’s martyrdom. Before his persecution in Rome by Emperor Valerian in 258, St Lawrence is believed to have distributed his church’s property to the poor and suffering, proclaiming them as the “true treasure” of the Church. As the patron saint of miners, St Lawrence resonates with Cox’s reverence for materials extracted from the earth.
Drawing on spiritual traditions from India, ancient Egypt and imperial Rome, as well as Christianity, Cox’s devotion to the characteristics of stone in his work narrows the gap between earthly base material and contemplation of the divine.
Wandering around Houghton’s grounds and encountering pieces inspired by tombs and shrines, including copper-coloured Interior Space: For Kephren. 2021, made from Aswan granite, and first displayed at the Great Pyramid of Kephren, together with the circle of sensual South Indian deities, the Yoginis, feels like exploring a rich cosmology, anchored in Christian roots.
“Stephen Cox: Myth” is at Houghton Hall, King’s Lynn, Norfolk, until 28 September. www.houghtonhall.com
