Space Becomes The Medium...Vibration of Space At Waddington Custot
Vibration of Space, an exhibition examining the artistic exchange between British painter Patrick Heron (1920-1999) and the non-figurative painters of post-war Paris, is opening at Waddington Custot Galleries on May 25th.
Spanning the years 1945–65, the exhibition highlights Heron’s admiration of three artists in particular - Hans Hartung (1904–89), Pierre Soulages (b. 1919) and Nicolas de Staël (1914–55). The exhibition will focus on this overlooked dialogue between European and British artists in the post-war years, a period dominated by the emergence of American Abstract Expressionism. Heron’s own interest in the Parisian art scene was piqued in 1949 when he saw paintings by Soulages at the Salon de Mai. A couple of years later, in 1951, Heron visited the de Staël exhibition held at Mathiesen’s Gallery in London which proved to be a turning point in his career. The exhibition includes Heron’s first abstract painting ‘Square Leaves (Abstract): July 1952’, which echoes de Staël’s ‘fat little squares or oblongs of thick, brushed paint’. Vibration of Space takes as its starting point Heron’s essay Space in Painting and Architecture (1953) in which he argued that by 1950, non-figurative painting in Paris had become the most significant movement in French art since Cubism. For Heron, space became the medium itself. He cited Soulages in particular for acknowledging and manipulating the illusory sense of space which existed within the flat surface of a painting, as compared to the pre-war artists who denied its presence. The materiality of paint is acknowledged and its application producing a visible grain on the painting’s surface. Heron believed this created a ‘vibration of space’, a key element which he brought to his own work of this period and valued so much in the work of Hartung, Soulages and de Staël. Heron’s prolific writing on these artists gave the Parisian painters a voice in London. After receiving photographs of a painting sent by Heron, Soulages remarked, ‘This photograph has increased my understanding of your interest in space and its prominent role in your reflections on painting. By the way, I agree with you on this point entirely, which makes what you write about my painting all the more meaningful’. Heron’s conversion to pure non-figurative abstraction began around 1952, but it was not until the mid-fifties that his artistic style changed completely. He presented his stripe paintings, which were the first of their kind, at a group show in 1957 at Redfern Gallery. Despite being heavily criticised, the stripe paintings have since become hugely influential. Small Red Verticals: March 1957 and Vertical Stripes 1956 are included in Waddington Custot Galleries’ exhibition and are early examples of Heron’s use of this revolutionary motif. As Alan Bowness (Director of Tate 1980-1988) later stated, ‘that very unpopular strand which the vertical paintings represented in 1957 has been seen to be a central issue to the development of painting in our time.’Heron’s controversial early adoption and championing of an art form which has now become a celebrated art historical movement, demonstrates his importance in both the history of European post-war art and within twentieth century art criticism.
Vibration of Space: Heron, Hartung, Soulages, de Staël Waddington Custot Galleries, 11 Cork Street, London W1S 3LT +44 (0)20 7851 2200 www.waddingtoncustot.com 25 May – 9 July 2016 Tuesday 24 May, 6-8 pm Monday to Friday, 10am to 6pm, Saturday 10am to 1.30pm Admission Free
