Collections

This display draws on the collections of Leeds Museums and Galleries and the Arts Council Collection to look at both the Construction and Systems groups of British artists who came to prominence in the1950s and 60s. It has been organised for the Gallery by artist Andrew Bick.

These groupings of British artists actively engaged with an international language of abstraction that started out in post-Revolutionary Russia and was then dispersed via the thinking, writings and action of European artists. The contribution these artists made to the development of modern art in Britain and abroad is often overlooked, though as a significant legacy passed on through their teaching and practice, it has had considerable impact on generations of subsequent artists.

The display traces a thread through this complex legacy with a selection from the work of this early generation of artists, and those who followed them, alongside younger artists emerging today who engage with the working methods of Construction and redeploy some of the forms of Systems art in their current practice.

The radical logic of 'Construction' - which often consists of wall-based work assembled from architectural-like components - and 'Systems' - where an ordered and progressive mathematical repetition is dominant - has during the course of its development had elements that seem to run contrary-wise to the rational and ordered.  Historically, these elements link it to the mischief making, 'subversive' methods of artists such as Marcel Duchamp, and Theo Van Doesburg with his 'alter ego', a character called 'I K Bonset', rooted in Dada. In this display, this strategy has a witness in the form of artist Anthony Hill's alternative persona 'Achill Redo'. It is evident too in aspects of the work by a younger generation of artists seen here.

Picking up this thread, to look at the shadow this strategy of subversion cast over the evolution of Construction and Systems art, seeing how various aspects of the development of these artistic movements can be re-examined in a contemporary light, is the pivotal point of this display.

Featured Artists: Eva Berendes, John Carter, Cullinan+Richards, Norman Dilworth, Adam Gillam, Christine Hatt, Charles Hewlings, Anthony Hill, Germaine Kruip, Gareth Jones, Peter Lowe, George Meyrick, Kenneth Martin, Mary Martin, Victor Pasmor, AchillRedo, Jean Spencer, Jeffrey Steele, Gillian Wise, Gary Woodley

This display is an outcome of research Andrew Bick undertook during a Henry Moore Institute Research Fellowship in 2008. Leeds Museums & Galleries are grateful to The Arts Council Collection and individual artists who have generously lent their work.

Public Programme:

A symposium on Construction & its Shadow, co-hosted by the Henry Moore Institute, will take place on Wednesday 11^th May 2011, from 12-30pm to 7pm with contributions from some of the participating artists and critics and art historians associated with ideas around Construction and Systems. Informal talks [dates and times tba] will also happen within the gallery space.

For further information or images please contact Sarah Brown, Curator of Exhibitions on 0113 247 8277