Perceval (sculpture)

Perceval is a public sculpture by British artist Sarah Lucas, a member of the Young British Artists movement. It is presently located in Aspire Park, Doha, Qatar. Perceval is the first and only piece of public art made by Sarah Lucas.^[1]

Perceval is a life-sized bronze sculpture of a Shire horse pulling a cart overflowing with two giant marrows. The piece stands 2.3 metres tall by 4 metres long, and weighs 5 tons. The giant marrows are cast in cement, one of Lucas's favored materials, providing a striking contrast to the high finish of the painted bronze sculpture. However, here Lucas plays with scale, rendering the vegetables almost equal in size to the horse that pulls them.^[2]

The piece is a replica of a popular knick-knack that adorns many mantelpieces in the UK. the subject matter reflects Lucas's predilection for reexamining everyday objects in unusual contexts. The installation of Perceval at the entrance to Central Park, where horse-drawn carriages line-up daily to offer guided visits of New York, plays off of its urban and pedestrian surroundings. ^[2]

Perceval reflects the artist's fascination with British culture, which is evident in much of her work, while nodding to literary tradition. Perceval is the name of the knight in King Arthur's court who unknowingly discovers the Holy Grail (the cup from which Christ is believed to drink at the Last Supper) and the narrator in Alfred Tennyson's 1870 work The Holy Grail. More contemporary references include T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland and Richard Wagner's opera Parsifal, in which the eponymous hero is the one to recover the spear used to pierce Christ during his crucifixion.^[2]