Skip to content

Rachel Whiteread

Rachel Whiteread
image left text right

Rachel Whiteread
Daylight, 2010
Resin
56 1/4 x 31 7/8 x 6 1/2 inches
(143 x 81 x 16.5 cm)

Rachel Whiteread is one of the preeminent sculptors of her generation. Her practice is defined by an ongoing investigation of domestic architecture and the traces of humanity impressed upon such sites. She casts the spaces inside and around objects – be they bathtubs or mattresses, architectural elements such as doors, floors and windows, or even entire buildings – and uses materials such as resin, rubber, concrete, and plaster to preserve each surface detail. The resulting sculptures are remarkably faithful to their source molds, but also uncannily foreign in that they represent an inverse of the original object and require a constant reorientation of perception. Absence is made present, interior becomes exterior, and the invisible is rendered visible.


Whiteread is best known for several large-scale public commissions such as House, a sculpture cast from the interior of a condemned Victorian house in London’s East End; Water Tower, a resin cast of the water towers ubiquitous to the New York City skyline; Monument, an inverted pedestal placed upon an empty plinth in Trafalgar Square; and the Holocaust Memorial in Vienna, an impenetrable library of books turned inwards in commemoration of the thousands of Austrian Jews who perished during World War II. These monumental works are distinguished by their poetic minimalism and their capacity to evoke stillness and contemplation. Her most recent commissions include The Tree of Life, a frieze for the historic façade of the Whitechapel Gallery in London in 2012, and Cabin, a permanent public sculpture for Governors Island, New York in 2016.

image right text left

Rachel Whiteread
Untitled (House), 1993
Concrete, wood and steel (Destroyed on January 11, 1994)
Installation London, England. Commissioned by Artangel. Sponsored by Beck's.

Rachel Whiteread (b. 1963) was born in London, England where she currently lives and works. She studied painting at Brighton Polytechnic and sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art.  Whiteread won the Turner Prize for her public sculpture House (1993) and represented Great Britain at the 1997 Venice Biennale. She has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Kunsthalle Basel, the Reina Sofia, the Serpentine Gallery, and the Deutsche Guggenheim, among others. Her works are in several prestigious collections worldwide including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., the Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, the Tate, London and the Centre Pompidou, Paris.

 

Most recently, a major retrospective exhibition of Whiteread's work debuted at Tate Britain in the fall of 2017, and traveled to the 21er Haus, in Vienna and the National Gallery in Washington D.C. in 2018, as well as the St. Louis Art Museum in 2019. In 2019 Rachel Whiteread was awarded a damehood for services to art as a part of The Queen’s Birthday Honors List, which awards people across the United Kingdom for outstanding achievements.

Artworks Nested Slideshow

Artworks Nested Slideshow Thumbnails

Rachel Whiteread
Untitled, 2020
Resin
23 5/8 x 19 3/4 x 3 inches
(60 x 50.2 x 7.5 cm)

Rachel Whiteread
Untitled (March), 2020
Plaster, pigment, wood and metal (eleven units, one shelf)
5 3/4 x 15 3/4 x 7 7/8 inches
(14.5 x 40 x 20 cm)

Rachel Whiteread
Untitled (Silver Leaf), 2015
Papier-mâché and silver leaf
22 x 19 5/8 inches
(56 x 50 cm)

Rachel Whiteread
Detached III, 2012 
Concrete and steel
77 1/8 x 67 11/16 x 115 11/16 inches 
(196 x 172 x 294 cm)

Rachel Whiteread
Daylight, 2010
Resin
56 1/4 x 31 7/8 x 6 1/2 inches
(143 x 81 x 16.5 cm)

Rachel Whiteread
Grey, Yellow, Yellow, 2009
Resin, plaster, wood and metal
6 1/4 x 35 3/8 x 4 3/8 inches
(16.0 x 90.0 x 11.0 cm)

Rachel Whiteread
Threshold II, 2010
Resin
77 1/8 x 29 7/8 x 3 inches
(196 x 76 x 7.5 cm)

Rachel Whiteread
Ghost, Ghost II, 2009
Polyurethane (fourteen parts)
30 3/8 x 33 1/2 x 24 5/8 inches
(77 x 85 x 62.5 cm)

Rachel Whiteread
Embankment, 2005
Polyethylene boxes
Dimensions variable
Installation at Tate Modern, London, 2005
Photograph by: Marcus and Marcella Leith
© Tate Gallery, London

Rachel Whiteread
Untitled (Fire Escape), 2002
Mixed media
289 3/4 x 215 3/8 x 236 3/8 inches
(736 x 547 x 600.5 cm)

Rachel Whiteread
Untitled (Domestic), 2002
Mixed media
266 1/8 x 229 7/8 x 96 1/2 inches
(676 x 584 x 245 cm)

Rachel Whiteread
Monument, 2001
Resin and granite
354 3/8 x 200 3/4 x 94 1/2 inches
(900 x 510 x 240 cm)

Rachel Whiteread
Untitled (Library), 1999
Dental plaster, polystyrene, fiberboard and steel
105 1/2 x 208 7/8 x 96 1/4 inches
(268.0 x 530.6 x 244.5 cm)

Rachel Whiteread
Water Tower, 1998
Resin and steel
134 x 96 inches
(340.4 x 243.8 cm)

Rachel Whiteread
Water Tower at Night, 1998
Ink on photo-lithograph
29 7/8 x 21 7/8 inches
(76 x 55.5 cm)

Rachel Whiteread
Books, 1997
Acrylic, pencil and collage on graph paper
40 15/16 x 74 3/4 inches
(104.0 x 190.0 cm)

Rachel Whiteread
Table, 1997 
Correction fluid and pencil on graph paper
40 15/16 x 39 5/16 inches
(104 x 100 cm)

Rachel Whiteread
Untitled (Ten Tables), 1996
Plaster
28 1/2 x 94 1/4 x 188 1/4 inches
(72.4 x 239.4 x 478.2 cm)
Installation view at the Yale Center for British Art
Photo: Richard Caspole

Rachel Whiteread
Untitled (One Hundred Spaces), 1995
Resin (100 units)
Dimensions variable

Rachel Whiteread
Untitled (House), 1993
Concrete, wood and steel
(Destroyed on January 11, 1994)
Commissioned by Artangel
Sponsored by Beck's

Rachel Whiteread
Untitled (Amber Floor), 1993
Rubber
4/5 x 33 4/5 x 96 1/2 inches
(2.03 x 85.85 x 245.11 cm)

Rachel Whiteread
Study for Platform, 1992
Watercolor, ink and correction fluid on graph paper
17 7/8 x 12 inches
(45.5 x 30.5 cm)

Rachel Whiteread
Study for 'Floor,' 1992
Ink and correction fluid on graph paper
18 x 12 inches
(45.6 x 30.4 cm)

Rachel Whiteread
Mattress, 1991
Signed, titled, dated and inscribed, verso
Acrylic on graph paper
16 3/8 x 11 3/4 inches
(41.5 x 30.0 cm)

Rachel Whiteread
Untitled (Black Bed), 1991
Fiberglass and rubber
9 x 48 x 75 1/8 inches
(23 x 122 x 191 cm)

Rachel Whiteread
Untitled (Pink Torso), 1991
Pink dental plaster (unwaxed)
3 5/8 x 6 5/8 x 9 1/4 inches
(9.5 x 17.0 x 23.5 cm)

Rachel Whiteread
Ghost, 1990
Plaster on steel frame
106 x 140 x 125 inches
(269 x 356 x 318 cm)

Contact

For more information, please contact Lauren Wittels at lauren@luhringaugustine.com.

Back To Top