Barry FLANAGAN (1941–2009) is celebrated for his dynamic bronze hares that occupy public spaces worldwide, including 'Hospitality' in Knokke-Heist. Before developing this signature motif, he produced groundbreaking sculptures in the 1960s using hessian, rope, sand and other unconventional materials.

These early works aligned him with avant-garde contemporaries like Carl Andre and Robert Smithson, and helped redefine sculptural practice. His participation in landmark exhibitions, including 'When Attitudes Become Form' (1969), 'Op Losse Schroeven' (1969) and 'Information at MoMA' (1970), established him as a radical and independent voice shaped by pataphysics and a deep interest in material experimentation.

Flanagan returned to bronze in the late 1970s, creating his first leaping hare in 1979, a form inspired by mythology, humour and a chance encounter with a hare on the Sussex Downs. Throughout the following decades he exhibited widely, representing Britain at the Venice Biennale (1982) and receiving major retrospectives at institutions including Tate Liverpool, IMMA Dublin and Tate Britain. His work spans film, performance, ceramics, stone and metal, and remains held in major public collections such as MoMA, Tate, the Centre Pompidou and the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.