Antoni Tàpies, 1923 - 2012

Antoni Tàpies, Metal Shutter and Violin, 1956

Antoni Tàpies died on 6 February, 2012. The Spanish artist's abstractions are notable for the use of readymade objects, sombre, rich colours, and textured materials - marble dust and sand mixed with pigment and varnish. He was, arguably, one of the greatest of European abstractionists. 

Read an obituary by Christopher Masters.

Antoni Tàpies, Matter in the Form of a Foot, 1965

Antoni Tàpies, Great Painting, 1958

Antoni Tàpies, Grey and Green Painting, 1957

Antoni Tàpies, Grey Ochre, 1958

Antoni Tàpies, Creu I R, 1975

Mondrian // Nicholson in Parallel - The Courtauld Gallery

Ben Nicholson, 1937 (painting), 1937

Mondrian // Nicholson in Parallel at The Courtauld Gallery examines the brief moment when London became an international centre of Modernism, in 1938. In that year Piet Mondrian, at the invitation of Ben Nicholson left war threatened Paris for London. Mondrian and Nicholson together formed a nucleus of avant-gardism in Hampstead (also present were Barbara Hepworth, Naum Gabo, Berthold Lubetkin, Ernő Goldfinger, Ernst Gombrich and Sigmund Freud). 

At the outbreak of war, in 1939, Nicholson and Hepworth left London for St Ives; they invited Mondrian to join them, but the countryside hating Mondrian declined and subsequently made his way to New York.

Read a fascinating account of this moment by Frances Spalding as well as in The Courtauld Gallery press release.

The exhibition continues until 20 May.

Piet Mondrian, Composition No.III White-Yellow, 1935-42

Piet Mondrian, Composition with Double Line and Yellow, 1932

Ben Nicholson, 1936 (white relief), 1936

Ben Nicholson, 1940-43 (two forms), 1940-43

Lise Sarfati: She - Brancolini Grimaldi

Lise Sarfati, Sloane #07, Oakland CA, 2007

Lise Sarfati: She, at Brancolini Grimaldi,  is a photographic portrait study of 4 American women: sisters Gina and Christine, and Christine's daughters, Sloane and Sasha. The photographs were taken on Kodachrome slide film and made over a period of 4 years, 2005-2009. 

Sarfati has photographed [the women] separately in various settings from the interiors of Victorian houses to outside on the street.  Sometimes wearing wigs or make up, it is hard to distinguish the pairs of sisters from each other and there is a sense that their identity is fluid, almost interchangeable.  Their expressions are often inscrutable though each photograph is filled with psychological intensity and often melancholia too… the individual images of these four women make up one story. (From the gallery website.)

Read a review by Sean O'Hagan and watch a video interview with Sarfati; See more work by the artist here, read an article by Sandra S Phillips written for Aperture Magazine, No194, Spring 2009, and an interview by François Adragna published by ASX (American Suburb X).

Lise Sarfati, Gina #12, Oakland CA, 2009

Lise Sarfati, Gina #09, Berkeley CA, 2009

Lise Sarfati, Christine #06, San Francisco CA, 2005

Lise Sarfati, Christine #45, Pioneertown CA, 2008

Lise Sarfati, Sloane #06, Oakland CA, 2005

Lise Sarfati, Sloane #68, Oakland CA, 2009

Lise Sarfati, Sasha #20, Emeryville CA, 2007

Joan Mitchell: The Last Paintings - Hauser & Wirth

Joan Mitchell, Untitled, 1992

Abstract Expressionist Joan Mitchell died in 1992; Hauser & Wirth are showing an exhibition of exuberant work made in the last decade of her life. Born in Chicago in 1925, Mitchell moved to New York in 1950 where she exhibited alongside Willem De Kooning, Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline; in 1959 she moved to France where she remained for the rest of her life. Her late work displays her admiration for Van Gogh and Monet. The exhibition continues until 28 April.

Joan Mitchell, Sunflowers, 1990-91

Joan Mitchell, Tondo, 1991

Joan Mitchell, Tondo, 1991

Joan Mitchell, Trees, 1990-91

Joan Mitchell, River, 1989

gaNNets + Japonika - Xposed Club at Slak Bar, 4 February

Poster by Mark Unsworth

Gannets - Fyfe Dangerfield, Chris Cundy, Alex Ward, Dominic Lash and Steve Noble - will play an Xposed Club event at Slak Bar, Cheltenham on Saturday 4 February. Gannets are the experimental sister band to the more pop Guillemots - also featuring Dangerfield, Cundy and Ward.The band have been featured recently on both Radio 3 and 6 Music and are curently on a UK tour. Their debut album, Transmissions of Not is due for release in April. Listen to samples here.

Support will be provided by Japonika - a four-piece from Cheltenham: 3 guitarists, Steve Grund, Luke Stow, Jamie Dawson and drummer Chris Gage. 

£6.00 on the door (£5.00 in advance from Badlands). Starts at 8.00.