Kathy Stephenson - Victoria Miro
Collages from the Independent 1999 - 2004. Topical, arcane, satirical and observant; this combination of text and image provides a unique bridge between Lubbock's vast art historical knowledge and his sharp graphic response to the moment.
This exhibition of beautifully crafted paper collages, provides the first opportunity to see a small selection of works made weekly by Tom Lubbock for the Saturday edition of The Independent between 1999 and 2004. Topical, arcane, satirical and observant; this combination of text and image provides a unique bridge between Lubbock's vast art historical knowledge and his sharp graphic response to the moment. The range of charged, bright, images reveal a highly original commentary that remains pertinent today.
The works are the result of an unusual and open newspaper brief, and continued to feature for five years on the editorial page without intervention. Although the trajectory of the archive reflects the fact that this was a period of immense change in media production, the collages here are purely manual, and were created with scissors, a wax roller and a store of glossy magazines. The images are all precisely dated, and track in and out of the political and social changes of the time, referencing the war in Afghanistan, the rise and fall of New Labour, Section 28, ASBOS, as well as more oblique, personal, cultural and seasonal markers.
Political, a limited edition giclée print, has been made to accompany the exhibition.
Biography
Tom Lubbock has been the chief art critic of The Independent since 1997, and has worked in newspapers, as a critic and an illustrator, for the past 25 years. His recent art writing includes monographs on the 19th-century engraver Thomas Bewick and the contemporary British painter Carol Rhodes as well as the weekly Great Works column for The Independent. Tom began working as a comedy writer and art critic for radio, television and newspapers in 1985, appearing on BBC2's The Late Show and writing for the short-lived Sunday Correspondent, among others.
He has written major catalogue essays on Goya (2001) and Ian Hamilton Finlay (2002) and has also completed book-length works - The Donkey's Head, on 17th-century painting, Great Works, a collection of essays to be published in 2011 by Frances Lincoln, and an anthology of English graphic art.
In November 2010, his essay, When Words Failed Me, was published in the Observer. This is part of a longer memoir that is a record of and reflection upon the progress of his life and illness since being diagnosed with a brain tumour in September 2008.
Press enquiries: Kathy Stephenson
kathy@victoria-miro.com
Opening december 9th
Victoria Miro
16 Wharf Road, London N1 7RW
Open Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 6pm, admission free
Underground Old Street / Angel