Some of the best things...
dal 27/7/2004 al 12/9/2004
Segnalato da
27/7/2004
Some of the best things...
Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
...in Life Happen Accidentally. An exhibition marking the 40th anniversary of one of the UK's most important contemporary art venues, Ikon Gallery. The show presents work by Ikon's four founder artists, Jesse Bruton, Robert Groves Sylvani Merilion and David Prentice, alongside that by some of the others they selected for the artistic programme during the vital early years.
Some of the Best Things in Life Happen Accidentally
Some of the Best Things in Life Happen Accidentally is an exhibition marking the 40th anniversary of one of the UK's most important contemporary art venues, Ikon Gallery.
In 1963 Ikon was conceived of as a 'gallery without walls', initiating touring exhibitions. In 1965 it took up residence in a glass-walled kiosk in Birmingham's BullRing precinct before moving three years later to a decommissioned mortuary in nearby Swallow Street. Ikon started as a co-operative of volunteers, managerially democratic and non-hierarchical, at once aesthetically adventurous and accessible. Supported from the beginning by a modest and visionary couple, Angus and Midge Skene, it challenged a conservative local art world. Taking the idea of an 'ikon' as a mobile art object focused towards a local audience – as opposed to an exclusive approach of 'art for art's sake' – it asserted a refreshing realism with respect to the place of art in society.
Some of the Best Things... presents work by Ikon's four founder artists, Jesse Bruton, Robert Groves Sylvani Merilion and David Prentice, alongside that by some of the others they selected for the artistic programme during the vital early years. At once embodying the idealism of the 1960s and the youthful aspiration of the participants, this exhibition constitutes a remarkable chapter in the art history of Birmingham. It conveys the original spirit of the gallery through a presentation of paintings, sculptures, prints and multi-media works, mostly from exhibitions at the time.
Image: Peter Berry Untitled
Ikon Gallery
1 Oozells Square, Brindleyplace
Birmingham