Huma Bhabha review – ‘Giacometti is a foil to her flamboyance. She is today’s Picasso’

Barbican, London
The Pakistani-American sculptor’s traumatised patchwork people more than hold their own against the great Swiss artist’s striding, emaciated statues in this thrilling clash

An artist has to ask big questions and have intense thoughts to get away with exhibiting among the profound masterpieces of Alberto Giacometti. I didn’t give much for Huma Bhabha’s chances. But she takes the Barbican’s new daylit art gallery by storm.

Grey morning light from windows that look across the brutalist ponds at St Giles Cripplegate pours through big holes in her 2019 sculpture Mask of Dimitrios. This roughly assembled human figure has plastic bags for breasts – not inflated but sagging pieces of dirty polythene – a metal chair for a skeleton enhanced by blackened dog bones, plaster arms and legs, a battered tray for a face, all tacked together over an inner emptiness.

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