Press Release
A Certain Kind of Light Light in Art Over Six Decades 21 January – 7 May 2017 An Arts Council Collection National Partner Exhibition
Towner Art Gallery is delighted to present A Certain Kind of Light: Light in Art Over Six Decades, a major new exhibition exploring how artists have responded to light, its materiality, transience and effect. Reflecting the relationship between light and a range of other themes, from brightness, colour and perception to transformation, energy and the passage of time, the exhibition brings together paintings, sculpture, video, photography, drawing and installations. Works by almost thirty leading artists including David Batchelor, Ceal Floyer, Raphael Hefti, Shirazeh Housiary, Gary Hume, Runa Islam, Anish Kapoor, L S Lowry, Julian Opie, Katie Paterson, Peter Sedgley, Mark Titchner, Rachel Whiteread and Cerith Wyn Evans are featured, selected from the Arts Council Collection, Towner’s collection and private loans.
As the basis for vision, light has long fascinated artists as both tangible material and subject. Lowry’s delicate play with light in his empty, ephemeral Seascape (1965) addresses the consistent challenge within the evolution of landscape painting to capture the effects of natural light. This painting, controversial at the time for its apparent lack of subject matter, contrasts with other artworks from the 1960s and 1970s by Peter Lanyon and Peter Sedgley who utilised artificial light to produce dynamic colour transformations.
The importance of artificial light as a source of illumination and as primary artistic material is also highlighted in works by David Batchelor, Julian Opie, Angela Bullock and Mark Titchner, while sculptural work by Anish Kapoor and Rachel Whiteread harnesses, absorbs or reflects light to activate the surrounding space. Whiteread’s semi-translucent resin casts, which render negative space into solid form connect with Runa Islam’s Stare Out (Blink) (1998), her playful experimentation with the positive- negative image and the illusory nature of film.
Whilst artists have always been intrigued and inspired by light, more conceptual approaches in the last twenty years have adapted the energy of light into other forms to articulate singular impressions of time and space. Cerith Wyn Evans’s Diary: How to improve the world (you will only make matters worse) continued 1968 (revised) from ‘M’ writings 67-72 by John Cage (2003), uses a crystal chandelier to convey a Morse code translation of Cage’s writings; Ceal Floyer’s Light (1994), presents a solitary unconnected bulb lit up from four sides by slide projectors; Totality (2015) stages Katie Paterson’s immersive installation featuring a large rotating planet-like mirror ball that illuminates a room with tiny projected images of nearly every solar eclipse documented by humankind; and Mark Garry’s large-scale thread installation reveals rainbow-hued graphic abstractions, visible only when the visitor moves around the gallery.
A Certain Kind of Light is the first exhibition curated by Towner from the Arts Council Collection for the National Partners Programme, following the recent presentation of the touring exhibition, One Day Something Happens.
Jill Constantine, Head of the Arts Council Collection said, “A Certain Kind of Light is an exciting exhibition and will appeal to all ages. It demonstrates the ambitious and imaginative approach of the curatorial team at Towner Art Gallery. Light in contemporary art is a fascinating premise and I’m delighted to see so many works from the Arts Council Collection being used to such great effect in this show.”
Artists in the exhibition: Roger Ackling, David Batchelor, Rut Blees Luxemburg, Angela Bulloch, Garry Fabian-Miller, Ceal Floyer, Mark Garry, Raphael Hefti, Shirazeh Houshiary, Gary Hume, Runa Islam, Anish Kapoor, Peter Lanyon, Brad Lochore, L S Lowry, Elizabeth Magill, Ivan Navarro, Julian Opie, Katie Paterson, John Riddy, Peter Sedgley, Mark Titchner, Rachel Whiteread, Paul Winstanley, Cerith Wyn Evans and Toby Ziegler.
Towner Art Gallery is an Arts Council Collection National Partner. The Arts Council Collection is managed by Southbank Centre, London on behalf of Arts Council England.
For further information about the exhibition including images and interview requests please contact Janette Scott Arts PR on [email protected] or +44(0)7966 486156.
For all media enquiries about the Arts Council Collection please contact Filipa Mendes on [email protected] or +44(0)20 7183 3577.
#ACCNationalPartners #artscouncilcollection
Notes To Editors
A Certain Kind of Light: Light in Art Over Six Decades, 21 January – 7 May 2017. Towner Art Gallery, Devonshire Park, College Road, Eastbourne BN21 4JJ. Open Tuesday – Sunday, 10:00am – 5:00pm and Bank Holiday Mondays, 10:00am – 5:00pm. Admission free. www.townereastbourne.org.uk
A wide-ranging talks programme accompanies A Certain Kind of Light, featuring those who have aspired to capture, understand and define light.
Selected talks: Philip Ball: Art and Light Sunday 26 February, 2pm Science writer and broadcaster Philip Ball will explore the possibilities and challenges of light as an artistic medium. £5:00/£4.00 conc/members
David Batchelor: The Luminous and the Grey Saturday 11 March, 2pm A Certain Kind of Light artist David Batchelor takes us on a voyage to places where colour comes into being and where it fades away, drawing on a wide range of material from neuroscience, philosophy, literature, film and the writings of artists. £5:00/£4.00 conc/members
Ann Wroe: Six Facets of Light Saturday 15 April, 2pm Writer Ann Wroe’s talk draws on her most recent book, Six Facets of Light, which interweaves a walker’s experiences of light in nature in East Sussex with the observations, jottings and thoughts of a dozen writers, painters, and some scientists, who have wrestled to define and understand light. £5:00/£4.00 conc/members
Garry Fabian Miller: Tracing Light Saturday 29 April, 2pm A Certain Kind of Light artist Garry Fabian Miller discusses how his work is inspired by the transforming power of light. Miller is considered to be one of the most progressive artists working with photography today. £5:00/£4.00 conc/members
Forthcoming National Partners Programme Exhibition at Towner Art Gallery: Now, Today, Tomorrow and Always: Art and Popular Culture 22 July – 8 October 2017 This exhibition of works selected from the Arts Council Collection explores visual art's ongoing engagement with popular culture and how its ability to entertain, seduce but also confound us forms part of its continuing appeal to artists. Featuring work by artists including Phil Collins, Jeremy Deller, Mario Rossi and Anthea Hamilton, the exhibition considers highly idiosyncratic manifestations of how popular culture, its surprising combinations of images, materials and words, have influenced recent contemporary art.
Founded as an art gallery for the people, Towner Art Gallery presents exhibitions of national and international importance to audiences across the UK and beyond. Showcasing the most exciting developments in modern and contemporary art, Towner develops and supports artistic practice, and provides a place for experiencing, creating and discussing art and culture. The gallery welcomes over 140,000 visitors a year and collaborates with individuals, communities and organisations to deliver an inclusive and accessible associated public programme and learning offer. Their acclaimed Collection of 4500 works is best known for its modern British art – including the largest and most significant body of work by Eric Ravilious (1903-1942) – and a growing collection of international contemporary art. In 2014 Towner became an independent charitable Trust, supported by a Board of Trustees, chaired by David Dimbleby. Towner is supported by Eastbourne Borough Council and Arts Council England through its National Portfolio Programme. www.townereastbourne.org.uk
The Arts Council Collection is a national collection of British art from 1946 to the present day and holds nearly 8,000 works which are available for loan to spaces across the UK. With more than 1,000 loans made to over 100 venues a year, it is seen by millions of people annually in public spaces from galleries and museums to hospitals, libraries and universities. Representing one of the most important collections of British modern and contemporary art in the world, it includes work from Francis Bacon, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore to Lucian Freud, Antony Gormley and Grayson Perry. The Collection supports and promotes British art and British artists by buying art when they are in the early stages of their career, and continues to acquire new work and support emerging artists. The Arts Council Collection is managed by Southbank Centre, London and the Sculpture Centre is located at Longside in Yorkshire Sculpture Park. www.artscouncilcollection.org.uk
The National Partner Programme was set up to mark the Arts Council Collection's 70th anniversary in 2016. The Arts Council England invited applications from galleries in England to join existing partner Yorkshire Sculpture Park in a network of galleries to work with the Collection and host an innovative range of exhibitions alongside outreach and digital projects on a year round basis. These partnerships will deepen their long standing relationship with the Collection and enable it to reach out to new and existing communities. The four National Partner museums and galleries are the Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, Birmingham Museums Trust, Walker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool and the Collection’s existing partner, Yorkshire Sculpture Park. The partners will provide a year-round home for art works within the Collection, hosting a special programme of 24 National Partner exhibitions over the between April 2016 – March 2019.
Arts Council England champions, develops and invests in artistic and cultural experiences that enrich people’s lives. We support a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries – from theatre to digital art, reading to dance, music to literature, and crafts to collections. Great art and culture inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves and the world around us. In short, it makes life better. Between 2015 and 2018, we plan to invest £1.1 billion of public money from government and an estimated £700 million from the National Lottery to help create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country. www.artscouncil.org.uk
Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest arts centre, occupying a 21-acre site that sits in the midst of London’s most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames. The site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Southbank Centre is home to the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and the Hayward Gallery as well as The Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection. For further information please visit www. southbankcentre.co.uk. Arts Council Collection is managed by Southbank Centre on behalf of Arts Council England.