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Indepth Arts News: "Colin Self: Art in the Nuclear Age" 2008-06-21 until 2008-10-12 Pallant House Gallery Chichester, , UK United Kingdom
Simon Martin, curator of the exhibition, said: “The
subjects of war and nuclear threat which Colin Self has
been addressing in his work since the 1960s are as
pertinent to today’s society as they have ever been. His
work, both in terms of subject matter and technique, has
always pushed boundaries, often with an extraordinary
combination of wit and visual intelligence.”
Colin Self first gained critical attention in Britain in the
early 1960s when he became identified with Pop art
through his use of imagery derived from popular culture.
But while other artists including David Hockney and Peter
Blake, both of whom recognised an originality in Self’s
work, celebrated modern consumer culture, Self turned to
the political and social reality of his times, in particular the
fear of nuclear weapons and the threat of the Cold War.
Independent visits to the USA and Canada in 1962 and
1965 heightened Self’s consciousness of Cold War Following a second visit to the USA in 1965, Self and the controversial Trilogy: The Iconoclasts (2007).
This timely exhibition also coincides with the fiftieth
anniversary year of the formation of the Campaign for
Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in 1958.
Following a second visit to the USA in 1965, Self
produced a series of drawings based on American nuclear
fall-out shelters, Art Deco cinema interiors and hot dogs,
which he described as being ‘as important a 20th century
development as a rocket’. His highly personal and
distinctive style of drawing, led the artist Richard
Hamilton to suggest that Self was ‘the best draughtsman
in England since William Blake.’
As a printmaker, Self has been a great innovator and was
a central figure in the 1960s printmaking boom. Using
images from a variety of commercial sources, Self created
the remarkable Power and Beauty series of screenprints
(1968) and the etching suite Prelude to 1000 Temporary
Objects of Our Time (1970-71) which sought to provide
a unique record of society in the event of its destruction.
During the early Seventies, Self became increasingly
suspicious of the commercial London art scene and
decided to withdraw from it entirely, initially relocating to
West Germany to work with the potter Mathies
Schwarze, and then later to Scotland, to work in isolation,
seeking a sense of solace through the creation of
atmospheric watercolours and charcoals of the
surrounding landscapes, a medium he later extended to
his native Norfolk. But a trip to the former Soviet Union in
1985 would provide yet more stimulus for the artist’s
explorations of Cold War culture. The work Oh! The Young
Chinese (1985) presents a witty commentary on
Communism, and the collages from the 1980s to the
present day, reveal an extraordinarily inventive visual
imagination. Works such as Burning Man Jumping from
Building (1983) and New York Disaster (1998) appear
remarkably prescient in the light of recent world events
such as the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001.
Other pieces, in contrast, create often humorous
narratives from found material in everyday life, as an
extension of the language of Pop art.
Colin Self: Art in the Nuclear Age culminates with Self’s
Odyssey Illiad suite of etchings (2001 to present), in
which the artist returns to the multiple-plate etching
technique he first used in the 1960s , to re-tell the
classical story by Homer using contemporary found-
imagery and themes.
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Pallant House Gallery presents the summer exhibition
Colin Self: Art in the Nuclear Age, the most
comprehensive display to date of works by leading
British Pop artist Colin Self (b.1941). This challenging
exhibition considers the artist’s engagement with
modern culture in the era of the Cold War, and is the
first show of its kind to bring together the most
important pieces from each period of the artist’s life,
from the 1960s to the present day.
This important exhibition, which comprises around one
hundred paintings, drawings and sculptures by Self,
includes iconic works such as Leopardskin Nuclear Bomber
(1962-3); pieces never shown before such as Strike:
Waiting Women on the Shore (1963/2008); important
contemporary works including New York Disaster (1998);
and the controversial Trilogy: The Iconoclasts (2007).
This timely exhibition also coincides with the fiftieth
anniversary year of the formation of the Campaign for
Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in 1958.
