>September Events / Art & Theatre / Events in Norfolk and Suffolk / exhibitions / Tourist Attractions Norfolk and Suffolk September 22, 2014
REALITY: Modern and Contemporary British Painting
Exhibition at Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, Norwich, 27 September 2014 – 1 March 2015
REALITY: Modern and Contemporary British Painting is a new exhibition at The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, at the University of East Anglia, Norwich. Curated by artist Chris Stevens, the exhibition brings together over 50 works celebrating the strength of British painting with some of the best and most influential artists of the last sixty years.
Uncompromising and direct, the work of each artist represented retains a strong reference to the real world, ‘the stuff of life’. While, to an extent, painting has been eclipsed in recent decades by the Minimal and Conceptual movements, installation, photography and film, REALITY testifies to the survival of painting as a medium and the impact of British painting today.
Major 20th Century artists are represented such as Walter Sickert, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and David Hockney, alongside contemporary painters including Ken Currie, George Shaw and Caroline Walker.
The artists in REALITY tackle a diverse range of subjects, referencing the body, relationships, history, politics, war, the urban environment and social issues. Despite these different references, the works are all united by two things – the harsh realities that have concerned key British artists over the decades and the simple act of painting.
Walter Sickert’s Ennui is an ideal introduction to REALITY; capturing the banality of everyday life at the beginning of the 20th century. DavidHockney’s My Parents beautifully complements Sickert’s work painted over 60 years previously. Hockney has instilled the painting with symbolic references and is a dedication to love and commitment; to the reality of relationships and growing old; to the differences and similarities that unite and separate us.
George Shaw’s dedication to the depiction of his home town, Coventry, reveals the mystery of the mundane, the absence of human life and the unfamiliarity of the familiar. Shaw portrays the narrative in his paintings with great subtlety, almost tenderness; his streets and buildings are deserted, allowing his own emotional response to the ties of suburbia to creep in and take hold. David Hepher’s expansive urban landscapes capture the hopelessness and decay that emanates from these buildings, capturing the lives of the inhabitants who he has chosen to omit from the canvas.
Caroline Walker’s paintings in contrast are voyeuristic; her women appear to be in limbo and seem unaware that they are being observed, either half-clothed or naked. Meanwhile the figures in Chris Steven’s works challenge the preconceptions we have about people -exploring identity, class, race, gender and the environment.
Sam Jackson’s small, intimate portraits bring a certain psychological intensity to his figures – an intensity that is amplified in Ken Currie’ssombre compositions, such as the exposed vulnerability of his Dirty King. Other artists have focussed on domestic interiors, and the work of Anthony Green and Paula Rego allow strange glimpses of the emotional complexity of our lives at home.
Commenting on the exhibition, Curator Chris Stevens said: “It is an enormous privilege to bring together in one exhibition a group of artists who have been a major influence on my personal development as a painter.
“The painters in this exhibition have been selected under the banner of Realism through their interest in everyday subject matter. Each painter is figurative or representational in nature and yet REALITY will present an extraordinary overview of artists with highly individual approaches to the making of a painting.”
REALITY: Modern and Contemporary British Painting features works from the following artists:
Francis Bacon, Tony Bevan, John Bratby, Cecily Brown, Katarzyna Coleman, Graham Crowley, Ken Currie, Dexter Dalwood, Lucian Freud, Anthony Green, Gwen Hardie, Philip Harris, Clive Head, David Hepher, David Hockney, Luke Jackson, Sam Jackson, Chantal Joffe, John Keane, L.S. Lowry, Alan MacDonald, Jock McFadyen, Paula Rego, Ray Richardson, Terry Setch, George Shaw, Walter Sickert, Stanley Spencer, Chris Stevens, Caroline Walker, Alison Watt, Carel Weight.
Admission prices: £8/£6 concessions
Opening times: Tuesday – Friday 10am – 6pm, Saturday and Sunday 10am – 5pm, Closed Mondays including Bank Holiday Mondays
Click on image to view paintings and artist information.
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts is an inspirational public art museum situated on the campus of the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich. The Centre is housed in the first public building designed by Norman Foster, a world-renowned example of 20th century architecture, which was awarded Grade II Listed status at the beginning of 2013.
One of Britain’s leading institutions for the study of the arts of all nations, the gallery was placed in the UK’s top ten cultural attractions by theIndependent on Sunday. Gifted by Sir Robert and Lady Sainsbury to the University in 1973, the Sainsbury Collection brings together art from many cultures around the world, dating from 4000BC to the present. Among works by prominent European artists are important collections of ceramics by Hans Coper, a significant collection of early works by Francis Bacon, multiple works by artists such as Henry Moore, Giacometti, Picasso, Jacob Epstein and Lucie Rie, all of which are displayed alongside material both ancient and modern from across the globe. The Centre also houses The Anderson Collection of Art Nouveau, one of the most significant of this period in the UK which was featured in the 2012 BBC4 documentary Art Nouveau: Sex & Sensibility. A selection of the collection is also on display in a current exhibition Sense and Sensuality: Art Nouveau 1890-1914 featuring works from the Arwas Collection.
Chris Stevens, REALITY: Modern and Contemporary British Paintings Curator
Chris Stevens studied Fine Art at the University of Reading and has exhibited regularly since graduating in 1978.
REALITY is a personal reflection of figurative painting over the past fifty years, which have been a direct influence on his development as a representational painter.
His solo exhibitions include the PM Gallery, London, Smelik & Stokking and Galerie Rademakers in Amsterdam, the GlynnVivian Museum & Art Gallery, Swansea and the Howard Gardens Gallery, Cardiff. Group shows include Fussball in Der Kunst, with Andy Warhol and Marcus Lupert in Germany, the BP Portrait Award at the National Gallery London, and Heads at Flowers East, London. He has been a prizewinner in the BP Portrait Award, 50 over 50 and more recently in the Painted Faces exhibition organised by the Saatchi Gallery and Windsor & Newton. He has also undertaken Arts Council residencies at Sunderland Football Club and Birmingham International Airport. He has work in public and private collections including the Victoria & Albert Museum, The National Gallery of Wales, Unilever, Galerija Portreta, Bosnia & Hertzegovena and many private collections in UK, South Africa, USA and Europe.
University of East Anglia
The University of East Anglia (UEA) was founded in 1963 and in 2013 celebrated its 50th anniversary. It has played a significant role in advancing human understanding and in 2012 the Times Higher Education ranked UEA as one of the 10 best universities in the world under 50 years of age. The university has graduated more than 100,000 students, attracted to Norwich Research Park some of Britain’s key research institutes and a major University Hospital, and made a powerful cultural, social and economic impact on the region.
—
advert
imajaz ARTWORK service
We have to ask, do you need artwork produced for your business or organisation? Well if so we can help, at IMAJAZ we have been producing digital artwork since 1987! Just email your request and we will get back to you with a price for producing your quality piece of artwork, that you can use over and over, large or small, to promote your business or event.
