No more heroes any more

MARTIN JENNINGS is one of Britain’s most important figurative sculptors. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Sculptors, his subjects include prominent figures from the world of politics, the military, royalty, academia, literature, industry, medicine and the law, his work often incorporating carved inscriptions. He is probably best known for his affectionate statue of Sir John Betjeman at St Pancras Station, which turns ‘the teddy bear-shaped’ poet into a romantic, lyrical figure that has become a celebrated London landmark.

At a time when such figurative statues tend to attract critical hostility from the arts media, yet knowing, but often insipid, conceptual work draws