A new exhibition, On Paper, from the Arts Council Collection will open at the Victoria Art Gallery in Bath on 1st December 2018, and will run until 17th February 2019, it’s been announced.
John Stezaker, Mask LXIV, 2007, © the artist, Courtesy Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London
On Paper showcases the work of acclaimed 20th-century and contemporary artists who work with paper. Looking beyond the mark-making of drawing to consider the material itself, the exhibition explores how artists have used paper as the focus of their work in creative and unusual ways.
Jon Benington, Victoria Art Gallery Manager, said: “Visitors to the exhibition will see an everyday material, paper, transformed into innovative and exciting artworks, many by well-known artists.
“Admission will be free for local Discovery Card holders, and there will be weekly tours of the exhibition with a curator, as well as paper-themed craft sessions for children.”
The artists represented in On Paper use paper not only as a medium but also as the very matter of their art: it is the subject and the object, the means of production and the artefact produced.
Demonstrating a range of approaches to collage, drawing and sculpture, On Paper showcases the work of over 40 artists including Damien Hirst, Roy Lichtenstein, Eduardo Paolozzi, Cornelia Parker, Wolfgang Tillmans and Bridget Riley, among many others.
The exhibition shows how paper is used by artists to create three-dimensional objects, such as Karla Black’s delicate and sensuous hanging sculptures made from sugar paper, hair gel and chalk; Lesley Foxcroft’s two-tone corrugated bricks; Gareth Jones’s cape made from cloakroom tickets; Art and Language’s jigsaw puzzle; and Brian Griffiths’ Ron (1996), a corrugated cardboard recreation of an enormous primitive computer.
On Paper will also present collage works by Linder, Eduardo Paolozzi, Roland Penrose, John Stezaker and Tony Swain, who have cut and pasted works using newsprint, postcards and photographs, and paper works which have been rubbed, folded and embossed by Anna Barriball, Wolfgang Tillmans and Langlands & Bell.
The touring exhibition also includes paper which has been actively burnt, torn or otherwise transformed by Cornelia Parker, Tim Davies and Roger Ackling.
For some of the artists in On Paper, the choice of a particular type of paper is an important consideration when making their work.
The precision of Bridget Riley and Kenneth Martin’s works is reflected in their preferences for graph paper; Jason Coburn applies scrawled words onto Ministry of Defence headed paper; while Prunella Clough’s ink line negotiates the hills and valleys of corrugated card.
The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated publication, which will be on sale in the Gallery shop.
There will be lunchtime exhibition tours every, from Thursday, 6th December 2018 to 31st January 2019 inclusive, from 12.30pm to 1pm. The tours will be free for Discovery Card and ticket holders.
On Saturday 15th December, there will be free ‘Paper Puddings’ family activities, where children can create paper pudding decorations using a range of art papers (10.30am-12.30pm and 1.30pm-3.30pm).
