Some Dimensions of my Lunch: Conceptual Art in Britain—Part 1: Roelof Louw
May 19–June 17, 2016
Private viewing: May 19, 6–8pm
Richard Saltoun Gallery
111 Great Titchfield Street
London W1W 6RY
Hours: Monday–Friday 10am–6pm
T +44 (0) 20 7637 1225
www.richardsaltoun.com
Richard Saltoun gallery announces a solo show devoted to conceptual artist Roelof Louw.
This is the first exhibition in series of four, examining the history of Conceptual Art in Britain. The exhibitions will be held between May 19 and September 20.
The title of the exhibition series, Some Dimensions of my Lunch, pays homage to an unknown work by Ed Herring. Herring’s work is filled with humour amidst its conceptual rigour—a defining characteristic of British conceptual art from the period. The exhibition runs concurrently with the major exhibition at Tate Britain, Conceptual Art in Britain: 1964–1979 (April 12 through August 29).
Roelof Louw is considered to be one of the most radical conceptual sculptors working in England in the 60s and 70s. His pyramid of 8,000 oranges, Soul City (Pyramid of Oranges), first shown in 1967, continues to cause a sensation wherever it is shown, (it was recently named in the press as one of the “10 most perplexing works of the 20th century,” a list which also included Marcel Duchamp’s urinal).
The exhibition at Richard Saltoun Gallery brings together Louw’s two contributions to the seminal conceptual exhibition of 1969, When Attitudes Become Form: Park Lane, which was exhibited at the Kunsthalle Bern, and Rope Piece, which will be installed for the first time since it was exhibited at the ICA, London, in 1969.
Born 1936 in South Africa, Louw came to London to study sculpture at St Martins in 1961. He was one of only a handful of British-based artists to exhibit in the key European exhibitions that defined Conceptual Art: Op Losse Schroeven, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and When Attitudes Become Form, Kunsthalle Bern, Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld and ICA London (all 1969).
Later he was included in Lucy Lippard’s celebrated Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966 to 1972, the first anthology to document conceptual art made between 1966 and 1972. Lippard herself installed Louw’s work Holland Park in her celebrated “numbers” shows, 557,087 at Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, 1969 and at 955,000 Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, 1970.
Louw went on to represent Britain at Between Man and Matter, the famous 10th Tokyo Biennale in 1970, where he exhibited Rolled Lead Work (1970). He later spent time teaching and working in the USA and Canada where he exhibited in several of the Land Art exhibitions of the 70s before settling again in Cape Town, where he lives and works today.
Some Dimensions of my Lunch exhibition programme
Some Dimensions of My Lunch: Conceptual Art in Britain (1956–1979) at Richard Saltoun Gallery will feature important work by many of the famous protagonists of the period including John Hilliard, Bob Law, Terry Atkinson (Art & Language), Keith Arnatt, John Blake, Barry Flanagan & John Latham, Marie Yates and Tony Morgan.
Part 2: Marie Yates (+ John Latham)
June 24–July 22
Part 3: Tony Morgan
July 28–August 26
Part 4: Ed Herring
September 1–30
This four-part exhibition, co-curated by Joy Sleeman and Richard Saltoun, has taken over three years to organise. Much of the work is either being shown for the first time or not seen since it was first exhibited.
Joy Sleeman, co-curator
A Reader in Art History and Theory at UCL Slade School of Fine Art, her internationally recognised research is focused on the histories of sculpture and landscape, especially 1960s Land Art. In 2013–14 she co-curated the most comprehensive exhibition of British Land Art to date, Uncommon Ground: Land Art in Britain 1966–1979. Current projects include a book on the sculpture of Roelof Louw (Ridinghouse) and advisor to an exhibition on David Lamelas in Long Beach, California, USA.
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