50th anniversary exhibition titled ‘My Generation: a Festival of British Art in the 1960s’ celebrates the creativity of the 1960s.
This exhibition series will be held across Kent during the first half of 2015 at Studio 3 Gallery (University of Kent, Canterbury campus), Mascalls Gallery (Paddock Wood) and The Beaney House of Art and Knowledge (Canterbury).
Palindrome: The Sixties Art of Brian Rice and Richard Rome
19 January – 10 April 2015
Monday – Friday, 9am-5pm, admission free
This show looks back to the works made by the artists during the mid-1960s and will feature a number of bold paintings and prints from Brian Rice, as well as Richard Rome’s impeccably finished sculptures and humorous and elegant working drawings.
Both artists developed their practices during formative years in the mid-sixties working in London’s vibrant and exciting art scene; Rice was such an exemplary sixties figure that Michelangelo Antonioni interviewed him while researching his film Blow Up. Rice and Rome responded to this eclectic urban environment and earlier Modernist influences including Constructivism, the Bauhaus, and the sculptures of Brancusi and Arp by developing bold, hard-edged and formal works that still demonstrate the attitudes of playfulness and experimentation that marked the decade.
According to Ben Thomas, Curator of Studio 3 Gallery: ‘This exhibition explores in depth the work of two extraordinary artists whose art is characteristic of the period of creativity and optimism when the University of Kent was founded. I am grateful to both artists, and also to the Redfern Gallery who have been our partners in realising this exhibition’.
Featured artists:
- Brian Rice (b. 1936) studied at Yeovil School of Art from 1952-56 and then Goldsmiths College, London from 1958-59 (A.C.T. London University 1959). Moving back to London from Somerset in 1962, Rice developed the abstract works that established his reputation nationally and internationally. His work is held in over 60 museums and collections internationally and he has won multiple prizes including Arnolfini Gallery Open Painting Exhibition 1963, Westward Television Open Exhibition 1971, Millfield Open 2003, and the Evolver Prize 2007.
- Richard Rome (b. 1943) has been creating subtle and technically astounding sculptures since the 1960s. These works often explore the ways in which figures can be represented in their environment. Rome has exhibited widely and completed a number of high profile public commissions including the Millennium Fountain in Cannizaro Park (Wimbledon). His work is included in many important collections including the Arts Council Collection, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Rome is a Fellow of the Royal British Society of Sculptors and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Art.
My Generation: A Festival of British Art in the 1960s
The exhibition looks back at the art created by younger artists during those heady, ‘swinging’ times when the University was established, and to build links between the University and the blossoming art sector across Kent. These three exhibitions each have their own distinctive take on this rich and inventive period, and together provide a wide-ranging exploration of some notable developments and achievements in painting, sculpture, printmaking and photography of the period. The shows themselves are spread over a seven-month period, and will be accompanied by a season of talks and events.
Following on from Palindrome, two more exhibitions are planned:
- A Marriage of Styles: Pop to Abstraction (28 March – 6 June 2015) at Mascalls Gallery , Paddock Wood.
- Home and Away: Photographs of Southeastern England by Tony Ray-Jones and Eduardo Paolozzi’s General Dynamic F.U.N. (9 May -23 August 2015) at The Beaney House of Art and Knowledge , Canterbury
For more information, please contact Katie McGown, Studio 3 Gallery Coordinator, on k.m.mcgown@kent.ac.uk or 01227 823 448.