This exhibition, selected by Robert McPherson, was drawn from the rich holdings of the British Council collection and featured drawings and watercolours made by major British artists throughout the 20th century. The exhibition opened with the work of Gwen John, Walter Sickert, Wyndham Lewis, Frederick Etchells and Stanley Spencer and traced the development of a native interest inline and figuration on one hand and in abstraction on the other. The work of war artists in both World Wars was well represented with examples by Christopher Nevinson, William Roberts, Edward Bawden, Eric Ravilious, John Piper and Graham Sutherland; Ben Nicholson, Matthew Smith, Paul Nash, Edward Burra, David Jones and Henry Moore represented the inter-war period; and the post-war period was particularly enlivened by experimentation and abstraction. Among the artists in the latter section were Peter Blake, David Hockney, Bridget Riley, John Hoyland, Patrick Caulfield and Barry Flanagan. The exhibition was accompanied by a comprehensive catalogue illustrating all the works in the exhibition, with notes on the artists and an introductory text by Frances Spalding (ISBN 0 86355 360 5). A separate catalogue was published by the British Council Poland to accompany the showing of the exhibition in Krakow.

Collection Artist(s)

Glossary

  • Abstraction

    To abstract means to remove, and in the art sense it means that artist has removed or withheld references to an object, landscape or figure to produce a simplified or schematic work. This method of creating art has led to many critical theories; some theorists considered this the purest form of art: art for art’s sake. Unconcerned as it is with materiality, abstraction is often considered as representing the spiritual.