13 February 2017

KALEIDOSCOPE: COLOUR AND SEQUENCE IN 1960s BRITISH ART

AN ARTS COUNCIL COLLECTION TOURING EXHIBITION LONGSIDE GALLERY, YORKSHIRE SCULPTURE PARK 1 APRIL – 18 JUNE 2017

The Arts Council Collection is pleased to announce the launch of a new touring exhibition focusing on British abstract art from the 1960s. Kaleidoscope examines the art of the 1960s through the fresh lens of sequence, symmetry and repetition, bringing into view the relationship between colour and form, rationality and irrationality, order and waywardness. Curated by independent curator and writer Sam Cornish with the Collection’s Senior Curator Natalie Rudd, Kaleidoscope is the first Arts Council Collection survey of 1960s art for over 20 years. It draws largely on the Collection’s outstanding holdings, augmenting the selection with important loans from other UK collections.

This show will present paintings and sculptures by more than 20 artists including David Annesley, Anthony Caro, Barry Flanagan, John Hoyland, Robyn Denny, Tess Jaray, Phillip King, Kim Lim, Jeremy Moon, Mary Martin, Bridget Riley, Tim Scott, Richard Smith, William Tucker, William Turnbull among other leading names from the period.

British art of the 1960s is noted for its bold, artificial colour, alluring surfaces and unpredictable shapes, yet these capricious forms are underpinned by a clearly apparent order, founded on repetition, sequence and symmetry. Kaleidoscope ranges across painting and sculpture to find a common language across diverse movements and tendencies: from the mind-bending surfaces of Op Art, to the repeated imagery of Pop, the mathematical order of Constructivism, and the sequential placement of brightly-coloured abstract units in New Generation sculpture.

British sculpture underwent radical transformation during these years. Influenced by Antony Caro’s floor-based and brightly-coloured, abstract steel sculptures, the New Generation sculptors incorporated a range of new materials – including acrylic sheet, fibreglass and brightly-coloured paint – into their playful, abstract works. Highlights include Tim Scott’s important work, Quinquereme (1966). Taking its name from a Roman galley-ship and comprising repeated, simple units of colour, this work will assume a majestic position in front of Longside Gallery’s wall of windows. Also on display is 4th Sculpture (1965) by Michael Bolus, a rarely-seen orb of colour made from repeated steel shapes, on loan from Museums Sheffield.

Painters were also breaking with tradition, employing processes of sequence and repetition to forge new possibilities. The beguiling, sequential surfaces of Op Art are here represented by important works including Bridget Riley’s seminal early painting, Movement in Squares (1961) which was purchased for the Arts Council Collection from the artist’s first exhibition. Also included is Trio (1963) a painting by Richard Smith that sits in the ambiguous space between abstraction and representation; his paintings take on a cinematic scale and often allude to the bold, repeated designs of billboards and advertisements. Like Smith, Antony Donaldson chose to move freely between abstract and figurative modes. His work, Hollywood Pix (1967, Private Collection, Hong Kong), combine an interest in American post- painterly abstraction with references to 1930s American cinema architecture.

Jill Constantine, Director of Arts Council Collection said: “Kaleidoscope highlights the strengths of the Arts Council Collection’s holdings of 1960s painting and sculpture, revealing the important contribution made by British artists at this time. Making a radical break with the past, these artists opened up new approaches to painting and sculpture and their work received international recognition. Shown together in this exhibition, these works create a visual feast of colour and form and look as fresh and dynamic as they did some 50 years ago.” After the presentation at Longside Gallery, the exhibition will tour to Djanogly Gallery, Nottingham Lakeside Arts; Mead Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre; and to Walker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool. Kaleidoscope: Colour and Sequence in 1960s British Art is accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalogue published by Hayward Publishing. With an introduction by Natalie Rudd and an in- depth new essay by curator Sam Cornish, this compact publication presents the work of more than 20 artists, including Robyn Denny, Tess Jaray, Phillip King, Jeremy Moon, Eduardo Paolozzi, Bridget Riley, Tim Scott, Richard Smith, William Tucker and William Turnbull, among others. Exhibition price £9.99 (RRP £11.99), shop.southbancentre.co.uk

For all PR and media enquiries regarding the Arts Council Collection please contact: Filipa Mendes Account Director [email protected] +44 (0) 20 7183 3577

Tour details: Longside Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park 1 April – 18 June 2017

Djanogly Gallery, Nottingham Lakeside Arts, The University of Nottingham 15 July – 24 September 2017:

Mead Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre, University of Warwick 5 October – 9 December 2017

Walker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool 24 Feb – 3 June 2018

Notes to Editors Arts Council Collection is managed by Southbank Centre, London on behalf of Arts Council England.

About Arts Council Collection The Arts Council Collection is a national loan collection of British art from 1946 to the present day. With nearly 8,000 works and more than 1,000 loans made to over 100 venues a year, it is seen by millions of people 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 artists by acquiring art at an early stage of their careers. The Arts Council Collection is managed by Southbank Centre, London and includes the Sculpture Centre located at Longside, Yorkshire Sculpture Park. www.artscouncilcollection.org.uk About Arts Council England 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. www.artscouncil.org.uk About Southbank Centre 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.