The exhibition catalogue stated ‘the exhibition is not intended to present a point of view on contemporary painting by inviting comparisons between one style and another, but has been assembled in the hope and in the belief that it will be enjoyed. Each picture must be allowed to speak for itself. Like musical rhythms and harmonies, the colours, tones, forms, lines and surface textures of a painting, united by the mind and hand of the artist, have an aesthetic validity of their own, regardless of all preconceptions about the natural or purpose of Art’.

Artists: William Coldstream, Ivon Hitchens, Frances Hodgkins, John Piper, Keith Vaughan and Ethel Walker

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.

  • 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.