This exhibition was curated by Clive Phillpot and Andrea Tarsia and was first shown at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London in February 2000. The exhibition documented a crucial period of change in British art, during which the supremacy of painting and sculpture was challenged with long-lasting results. As Conrad Atkinson put it in the exhibition catalogue ‘The British art of the 70s made the British art of the 90s possible’. The exhibition focused mainly on verbal, photographic and filmic works produced by artists living in or passing through Britain during the decade 1965 to 1975. Artists in the exhibition included John Latham, Gustav Metzger, David Medalla, Art & Language, Susan Hiller, the Boyle Family, Richard Long, Kay Fido Hunt, Margaret Harrison and Mary Kelly. The showing of the exhibition at the Museu do Chiado, in downtown Lisbon, was supported by the British Council. A fully illustrated catalogue, in English and Portuguese editions, was published to accompany the show and included essays by Clive Phillpot, Andrea Tarsia, Michael Archer and Rosetta Brooks. It included a chronology of the period and biographies and statements by the artist, of which many of the latter were written especially for the catalogue. ISBN 972 776 083 X (Portuguese) 0854 88 122 0 (English)

Collection Artist(s)

Glossary

  • Painting

    Work of art made with paint on a surface. Often the surface, also called a support, is a tightly stretched piece of canvas, paper or a wooden panel. Painting involves a wide range of techniques and materials, along with the artist's intellectual concerns effecting the content of a work.

  • Sculpture

    A three-dimensional work of art. Such works may be carved, modelled, constructed, or cast. Sculptures can also be described as assemblage, in the round, relief, and made in a huge variety of media. Contemporary practice also includes live elements, as in Gilbert & George 'Living Sculpture' as well as broadcast work, radio or sound sculpture.