Our Visit to Hauser & Wirth in Somerset

Posted:18 August 2015

If you are traveling to the West Country this late summer or autumn do visit the Hauser & Wirth gallery at Bruton in Somerset – it is very interesting in so many ways!

Hauser & Wirth Somerset is an innovative world-class gallery and arts centre which runs an extensive education programme and regular artists’ residencies. Their aim is to share contemporary art with new audiences and to engage the public with art, the countryside and the local community.

The outdoor sculptures are well worth viewing, especially the new Radic Pavilion installed earlier this year (a unique structure first unveiled as the Serpentine Gallery 2014 Pavilion in London). We love the way the old buildings meet the new and while you are there do visit the Roth Bar and grill great food in a relaxed atmosphere inspirational!

However, once again it is Piet Oudolph’s planting that really does shine out. Oudolf, the internationally-renowned landscape designer from the Netherlands, has designed the landscaping scheme for the entire site, including Oudolf Field – a large perennial meadow to the north of the farmyard and new gallery buildings.

The plantings, especially the green and black mixes with such plants as dead herbaceous peonies, are sharp and zingy and very effective here (though look dreadful in my garden at home!).

The Somerset countryside is stunning and there are many gardens nearby that are well worth exploring – among others Margery Fish’s iconic cottage garden at East Lambrook Manor Gardens, and The National Trust’s Barrington Court (National Trust, and one of the locations for the TV series of Wolfe Hall) and Tintinhull Garden.