’Power in Woman’: Sarah Lucas’ female figures arrive at London’s Soane Museum

Complex and ever provocative, British artist Sarah Lucas is a woman of many parts. So too, is her corps of discombobulated female figure studies, which are now on show in a new London exhibition at Sir John Soane’s Museum, supported by the Art Fund.
‘Power in Woman’ sees Lucas’ commission from last year’s Venice Biennale return to the custard-yellow setting that in part inspired her installation for the British Pavilion. The trio of sculptures on show – Yoko, Pauline, and Michele – make themselves at home in the North Drawing Room, casually slumped and explicitly splayed atop furniture among the storied museum’s antiques and paintings.
‘Sir John was continually, over a lifetime, collecting and extending his house to accommodate his collection. The whole edifice is his work of art,’ says Lucas. ‘Strange then to intervene in his picture, temporarily.’ Lucas’ sculptures form part of a series of ten cast plaster bodies, collectively titled the Muses, and for which the artist used friends as models.
The ‘topless’ figures, each one embellished with a cigarette, form a startling counterpoint to the classical sculptures in the museum’s collection. ‘Soane’s plasters are cast from the marble originals. Mine, on the other hand, are cast direct from the woman in question using the rough and ready method of making a waste mould by applying plaster bandage directly onto the body,’ the artist explains.
She adds: ‘The mould doesn’t survive. There’s very little room in the process for refining the figure or otherwise idealising it.’ Lucas makes a compelling case for how much perfection there is in imperfection.
Pauline, 2015. The show sees Lucas’ commission from last year’s Venice Biennale return to the custard-yellow setting that in part inspired her installation for the British Pavilion. © Sarah Lucas. Courtesy of Sir John Soane's Museum and Sadie Coles HQ. Photography: Graeme Robertson
Yoko, 2015. The works make themselves at home in the North Drawing Room, casually slumped and explicitly splayed atop furniture among the storied museum’s antiques and paintings. © Sarah Lucas. Courtesy of Sir John Soane's Museum and Sadie Coles HQ. Photography: Graeme Robertson
INFORMATION
‘Power in Woman’ runs until 21 May. For more information, visit the Sir John Soane’s Museum website
ADDRESS
13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields
London WC2A
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
-
Visit this Michelin-star New York restaurant that doubles as an art gallery
Artist Mr.StarCity is exhibiting his emotionally charged yet optimistic ‘Bloomers’ portrait series at Frevo, a Greenwich Village hidden haunt
By Adrian Madlener
-
Nina Runsdorf brings classic jewellery back to life to mark 20 years
New York-based jewellery designer Nina Runsdorf celebrates her eponymous brand’s anniversary with a new jewellery collection, ‘Archive’
By Hannah Silver
-
Enter the world of Cave Bureau, and its architectural and geological explorations
Nairobi practice Cave Bureau explores architecture’s role in the geological afterlives of colonialism, as part of a team exhibiting at the British pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025
By Marwa El Mubark
-
‘Humour is foundational’: artist Ella Kruglyanskaya on painting as a ‘highly questionable’ pursuit
Ella Kruglyanskaya’s exhibition, ‘Shadows’ at Thomas Dane Gallery, is the first in a series of three this year, with openings in Basel and New York to follow
By Hannah Silver
-
The art of the textile label: how British mill-made cloth sold itself to Indian buyers
An exhibition of Indo-British textile labels at the Museum of Art & Photography (MAP) in Bengaluru is a journey through colonial desire and the design of mass persuasion
By Aastha D
-
Artist Qualeasha Wood explores the digital glitch to weave stories of the Black female experience
In ‘Malware’, her new London exhibition at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, the American artist’s tapestries, tuftings and videos delve into the world of internet malfunction
By Hannah Silver
-
Ed Atkins confronts death at Tate Britain
In his new London exhibition, the artist prods at the limits of existence through digital and physical works, including a film starring Toby Jones
By Emily Steer
-
Tom Wesselmann’s 'Up Close' and the anatomy of desire
In a new exhibition currently on show at Almine Rech in London, Tom Wesselmann challenges the limits of figurative painting
By Sam Moore
-
A major Frida Kahlo exhibition is coming to the Tate Modern next year
Tate’s 2026 programme includes 'Frida: The Making of an Icon', which will trace the professional and personal life of countercultural figurehead Frida Kahlo
By Anna Solomon
-
A portrait of the artist: Sotheby’s puts Grayson Perry in the spotlight
For more than a decade, photographer Richard Ansett has made Grayson Perry his muse. Now Sotheby’s is staging a selling exhibition of their work
By Hannah Silver
-
From counter-culture to Northern Soul, these photos chart an intimate history of working-class Britain
‘After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989 – 2024’ is at Edinburgh gallery Stills
By Tianna Williams