RSS

Contact us

Friday 5 December 2008

Light and shade

Colin Self: Art in the Nuclear Age
Pallant House Gallery, Chichester until 12 October

David Tress: Chasing Sublime Light
Petworth House, West Sussex, until 29 July

Colin Self (born 1941) is one of the unsung talents of the English art world, a maverick who made intensely original Pop art in the 1960s and then rusticated himself in Norfolk, where he continues to make all manner of art from the satiric to the pastoral. He is not the easiest of characters, and the last time a major museum exhibition of his work was planned, he cancelled it at the last moment. So Pallant House must be congratulated on achieving such a full account of an immensely distinguished and largely unknown artist. The catalogue accompanying the show (£19.95 in paperback) is also the first substantial publication on the artist. Exhibition and catalogue make a convincing argument for wholesale reassessment.

The exhibition begins with some of Self’s inventive and witty multiple-plate etchings in the corridor outside the trio of galleries usually reserved for temporary shows. Spilling out in this way the exhibition demonstrates how it will not be easily contained or categorised. The three galleries are densely hung with work which demands and deserves a lot of attention. In the first room are three cabinets which house striking works: a Leopardskin Nuclear Bomber like a terrifyingly vicious de luxe dildo, a vast black hotdog in painted wood and fibreglass, and the upholstered model of a cinema foyer, decked out in Fablon and marbled paper. Here is Self the idiosyncratic Pop artist exploring the violence and luxury of our consumerist society, while falling in love with the Odeon Cinema in Muswell Hill.

More articles from: Andrew Lambirth | this section

Print this article  |  Email to a friend  |  Permalink  |   Comment

Post this entry to:   del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Advertisement

Spectator Business | Apollo Magazine

Corporate | Advertising | Privacy | Terms

Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London, SW1H 9HP

All Articles and Content Copyright ©2008 by The Spectator | All Rights Reserved