The Royal Academy of Arts’ major spring show, ‘Modern British Sculpture’ is attracting controversy even before it opens. By pursuing a ‘rigorous formal argument and an unforgiving intellectual stance’ it presents a challenging visual journey that omits the work of some prominent British sculptors.

The accompanying exhibition catalogue explores British sculpture from the late Victorian period to the 21st century. Among the essays is one by Design Archives Director Catherine Moriarty. Her essay examines how we might read the Cenotaph as the British public’s first encounter with minimalism. It explores the ways in which the Cenotaph was reproduced and its place as an object that provokes ideas about what sculpture and architecture might be.

Edited by the exhibition’s curators, Penelope Curtis (Director of the Tate Britain) and Keith Wilson (artist and tutor at the Royal College of Art), the book includes 314 pages of illustrations and essays. Copies are available from the Royal Academy.

The exhibition runs from 22 January – 7 April 2011.