- Friday 7 April – Sunday 23 July 2023
- Launch event: Thursday 6 April, 7-9pm
- Djanogly Gallery, Lakeside Arts, University of Nottingham
- Admission Free
A new touring exhibition opens at the Djanogly Gallery, Lakeside Arts, this April. The exhibition offers
visitors the opportunity to see a range of art works drawn from the critically acclaimed collection of the
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts based at the University of East Anglia. It celebrates the abstract and
constructed art made and exhibited in Britain since 1951, and includes over 60 objects including
sculpture, reliefs, mobiles, painting, drawing and printmaking that share a common language of
geometry, bold colours and industrial design. The exhibition marks a significant bequest to the Sainsbury Centre from Joyce and Michael Morris, and many of these important works will be exhibited in public for the first time in many years.
The exhibition follows Lakeside Arts’ hugely successful 2016 exhibition in the Djanogly Gallery, Victor
Pasmore: Towards a New Reality, which revealed Pasmore’s transition in the 1940s and 50s from
paintings of conventional subjects to constructed abstract reliefs made in wood and Perspex. The art
historian Herbert Read called it “the most revolutionary event in post-war British art.” Rhythm &
Geometry starts with work by Pasmore and his contemporaries who pursued a similar path. 1951 was to
prove a significant turning point in the arts in Britain. The Festival of Britain was staged across the countryto celebrate the arts, sciences, technology, and industrial design. In the same year, the first exhibition devoted to abstract art since before WWII was presented by the Artists’ International Association. Victor Pasmore and Mary Martin made their first relief sculptures, and Kenneth Martin his first mobile.
The exhibition is opened by an important group of sculptures and reliefs by Pasmore and his fellow Constructionists. It then proceeds to examine how artists in the 1950s used mathematical or scientific principles – including early computer-based coding – to create their art. Some artists in the 1960s experimented with works that involved the active participation of the viewer to move magnetic parts or manipulate their sculptures in other ways, while kinetic art works might involve motorized elements that caused them to actually move. Other artists took their abstraction into different realms exploring the emotive and optical effects of colour and pattern. The exhibition ends with younger generations of painters and printmakers collected by the Sainsbury Centre who have engaged in geometric abstraction since the 1960s.
Artists include: Robert Adams, Lygia Clark, Natalie Dower, Adrian Heath, Anthony Hill, Kenneth Martin, Mary Martin, François Morellet, Victor Pasmore, Jean Spencer, Takis, Mary Webb, Victor Vasarely, Gillian Wise and Li Yuan-Chia. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with new photography and research.
Neil Walker, Head of Visual Arts at Lakeside, says:
“the overwhelming sense I get from this work is of a real optimism for the future. These artists – sometimes working together with architects – were part of the rebuilding of the country and culture after the war. Their art speaks strongly of faith in science and the idea of progress. I’m also struck by how familiar their particular brand of abstraction now feels, how much has been absorbed through the popularity of mid-century furniture design and minimalist interiors.”
Families will be able to pick up an Arts Investigator pack to help children explore the exhibition in a fun way. There are two cafés on site offering a selection of drinks and delicious bites, and visitors can also enjoy the beautiful parklands of the Highfields Park alongside their exhibition visit. To find out more about the exhibition and accompanying talks and workshops, visit lakesidearts.org.uk/RhythmGeometry
Posted on 27 March 2023
