This display continues The Hepworth Wakefield's exploration into developments in twentieth century British art and takes as its conceptual starting point Parallel of Life and Art, staged by the Independent Group in 1953 at the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art), London. 

Conceived through collaborations between artists (Eduardo Paolozzi, Nigel Henderson), architects and critics (Peter and Alison Smithson, Reyner Banham) this ground-breaking and innovative exhibition juxtaposed a series of seemingly disparate images and emphasised the importance of photography, mass-produced imagery, architecture and design to avant-garde art. 

The exhibition focuses on this shift in influence, highlighting the multiple sources selected for Parallel of Life and Art that point to a wider artistic field of vision and art-historical precedent. Art could now integrate the visual imagery of everyday life; the photograph, x-ray, microscopic image and the natural world. Alongside this was an acknowledgement of 'other' non-Western sources: the inclusion of 'primitive' objects, and reproductions of works by European and American artists such as Jackson Pollock, Jean Dubuffet, Paul Klee and Alberto Giacometti, whose work will also be included in this display. 

This exhibition also explores the significance of Parallel of Life and Art and its impact on the ideas and values that become intrinsic to the British Pop movement. The display at The Hepworth Wakefield includes sculpture, painting, drawing, printmaking, photography and video by artists such as Magda Cordell, Richard Hamilton, Nigel Henderson, John McHale, Eduardo Paolozzi and William Turnbull. 

Full details at http://www.hepworthwakefield.org/whatson/parallel-of-life-and-art/

Collection Artist(s)

Glossary

  • Contemporary

    Existing or coming into being at the same period; of today or of the present. The term that designates art being made today.

  • Design

    The arrangement of elements or details in an artefact or a work of art.

  • Drawing

    The depiction of shapes and forms on a flat surface chiefly by means of lines although colour and shading may also be included. Materials most commonly used are pencil, ink, crayon, charcoal, chalk and pastel, although other materials, including paint, can be used in combination.

  • 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.

  • Photograph

    A permanent image taken by means of the chemical action of light on light-sensitive surfaces.

  • 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.

  • Video

    Images recorded on videotape or on optical disc to be viewed on television screens, or projected onto screens. The medium through which these images are recorded and displayed.