calendario eventi  :: 

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6/10/2006

Three exhibitions

Tate St Ives, St Ives (Cornwall)

Into Seeing New: Roger Hilton

This exhibition of drawings and paintings by British artist Roger Hilton (1911-75) brings colour, light and a return of the figure to Tate St Ives. Hilton painted his first abstract work in 1950 and by 1952 he was constructing bold designs of irregular shapes in strong colours where affinities lay with art informel and his friend, the Dutch artist Constant. The influence of Piet Mondrian's work is also evident by the mid 1950s in the colour schemes of white, black and red that he briefly adopted in paintings such as February-March 1954. However, his association with the St Ives artists - consolidated by his frequent visits to that town from the late 1950s - no doubt underpinned the landscape associations in his work at that time.

Inspired by contemporary European post-war abstract trends, Hilton's figurative paintings became more concerned with the act of painting and increasingly abstract. Aligned initially with constructivists in Lawrence Alloway's show of 1954 Nine Abstract Artists, his use of rich colour and texture evoking the rhythms of natural phenomena led to an affinity and association with the modernists working in St Ives from the mid 1950s. By the end of the decade Hilton returned to 'reinvent figuration', demonstrating not only his frustration with the limitations of abstract painting and rejection of American Abstract Expressionism in favour of the European tradition, but also his discovery that images could be generated from the process of painting itself. Hilton's colourful dynamic images of women successfully bridged the gap between abstraction and figuration and also between images of the figure and the landscape.

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Modernism in St Ives

By the late 1800s, St Ives had become a thriving artists' colony. The renowned natural beauty of the area and 'Mediterranean' light made it a popular destination for marine and landscape artists pursuing continental trends of plein air (outdoor) painting.

In 1939, at the outbreak of war, the arrival of Modernists Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson was to have a tumultuous effect on the artistic traditions of the colony. Associated during the 1930s with international avante-garde abstract artists such as painter Piet Mondrian and 'Constructivist' sculptor Naum Gabo, the couple had explored purist geometric forms in sculpture and relief.

Hepworth and Nicholson's presence, along with Naum Gabo in Carbis Bay, attracted a new generation of artists to live and work in St Ives. Exploring abstraction, artists such as Wilhelmina Barnes-Graham, Bryan Wynter, Patrick Heron, Terry Frost and Peter Lanyon responded to the experience rather than topographical view of the Cornish landscape. Gabo's influence, and the arrival of the American Abstract Expressionists in the UK from the mid-1950s, such as Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock, fuelled new ideas about portraying the sensations of space, light and movement within two and three dimensions.

This display highlights many of the key figures who contributed to the story of Modernism in St Ives from the late 1920s to the mid 1980s. It reveals many personal and artistic associations and includes two early figurative works made in St Ives by Tony O'Malley. Interestingly, Tate St Ives now stands on the site of the old gas works depicted by the artist in 1955.

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Nick Evans

The fourth Tate St Ives Artist in Residence is sculptor Nick Evans (b1976). Using a diverse range of media from cast and assembled resin, poured aluminium and hand-built ceramics, Evan's composite objects - of abstract and figurative elements - explore aspects of human experience. Evans constructs anarchic and playful relationships between his painted surfaces and animated forms. Drawing from a variety of sources from 20th century art history and contemporary culture, his eclectic practice subverts sculptural traditions whilst questioning social, political and cultural representations.

Living and working in Glasgow, Evans is associated with the next generation of artists to come through the Glasgow School of Art.


Image: Roger Hilton, Oi Yoi Yoi 1963, Tate (c) Roger Hilton. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2002

Tate St Ives
Porthmeor Beach
St Ives Cornwall TR26 1TG
March - October
Monday - Sunday 10.00 - 17.20, last admission 17.00
November - February
Tuesday - Sunday 10.00 - 16.20, last admission 16.00
Note: We will be closed on 24, 25, 26 December.

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