The Drummer, 1989-1990

Barry Flanagan (1941-2009)

Bronze

City of Beverly Hills with a donation by the Erika J. Glazer Family Foundation

For much of his career world-renowned British sculptor Barry Flanagan was preoccupied with the motif of the rabbit, or, more precisely, the hare. The historical-cultural associations between this creature and human concepts of life itself fascinated him. To the Egyptians, for instance, the hare represented animal vitality; in Chinese mythology the hare is the sole inhabitant of the moon and the symbol of immortality. This image of the hare has thus come to embody human existence, as well as our relations to the animal world.
Rabbits and hares are further associated with the spirit of play, and it's this ludic spirit Flanagan captures in his attenuated, tambourine-shaking big bunny.