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BRIT
ART OF THE SIXTIES
22nd May - 28th June 2008
'Swinging London' the epicentre of everything trendy,
progressive and inspirational during the 1960s - mini
skirts, mini cars, Mary Quant, the King's Road, Carnaby
Street, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and an explosion
of colour and youth culture made for heady times, and
the art of the period was no less radical, showing an
extraordinary level of energy, innovation and diversity.
It is against this backdrop that Mark Barrow Fine Art
has brought together a selection of works by the leading
artists of the decade in a survey show that takes in Pop
Art, Op Art and hard-edge geometric abstraction to offer
a new perspective on the period.
Major works by artists such as Joe Tilson, Richard Smith,
Derek Boshier and Peter Phillips, who all burst from the
Royal College of Art in the early 1960s with an anarchic
aesthetic that challenged the very core of what made 'art',
are presented alongside fellow painters John Hoyland,
Harold Cohen and Bernard Cohen, who were exploring a new
form of highly innovative organic abstraction; Bridget
Riley, Peter Sedgley, Michael Kidner and Barry Martin,
whose mind bending kinetic, or Op-Art, took hard-edge
abstraction to new heights by playing with the sensory
perception of the viewer; and the radical sculptors Clive
Barker and Nicolas Munro, whose use of popular imagery
epitomised what we all now know as Pop Art.
Highlights
Highlights include 'Swan', an early Pop Art painting by
Derek Boshier and the only remaining work of the period
still in the artist's collection; a key 1967 John Hoyland
from a private collection in Europe; seminal examples
of the work of both Harold and Bernard Cohen, two very
important painters who represented Great Britain at the
Venice Biennale as well as a host of other major international
exhibitions throughout the 1960s and who could be seen
as the Chapman brothers of their day for the radical direction
of their work; a significant Jeremy Moon grid painting
from the same series recently shown at the Tate and a
major Joe Tilson diptych representing Russian cosmonaut
and hero Yuri Gagarin. As well as at least one major example
of each of the 22 artists featured in the exhibition,
there will also be a selection of smaller works and works
on paper, starting from as little as £1000, so collectors
with more modest budgets will still be able to acquire
a unique piece of British sixties history. Prices range
from £1000 - over £100,000.
Full list of artists
Derek Boshier, Richard Smith, Nicolas Munro, Joe Tilson,
John Hoyland, Clive Barker, Peter Phillips, Jeremy Moon,
Harold Cohen, Bernard Cohen, Antony Donaldson, Michael
Tyzack, David Leverett, Michael Kidner, Bridget Riley,
Peter Sedgley, Marx Vaux, Garth Evans, Justin Knowles,
Derek Hirst, Barry Martin and Gerald Laing. |
