'Simplicity can be rich': Rachel Whiteread at Goodwood Art Foundation

The Turner Prize winner's 'surreal, spectacular' sculptures are on display in ancient West Sussex woodland

Down and Up by Rachel Whiteread at the Goodwood Art Foundation.
Down and Up: 'a pair of staircases leading to nowhere'
(Image credit: Lucy Dawkins / Goodwood Art Foundation)

"Few British artists make work as consistently high-calibre" as Rachel Whiteread, said Cal Revely-Calder in The Telegraph. She was the first woman to win the Turner Prize, back in 1993; now, her sculptures and photographs are the "headline act" at the new Goodwood Art Foundation in West Sussex.

Set among the "ancient trees" on the edge of a meadow lies one of her most striking pieces, "Down and Up". Cast from an old staircase in a former synagogue in London's Bethnal Green, the imposing grey concrete sculpture of "a pair of staircases leading to nowhere" will no doubt be the "Instagram star" of the show. Marvelling at the art "in the open air" and away from the bustling crowds of urban galleries is a real "pleasure".

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Irenie Forshaw is a features writer at The Week, covering arts, culture and travel. She began her career in journalism at Leeds University, where she wrote for the student newspaper, The Gryphon, before working at The Guardian and The New Statesman Group. Irenie then became a senior writer at Elite Traveler, where she oversaw The Experts column.