Yves Klein had been working with canvases of a single colour since the early 1950s and in 1957, as part of a solo exhibition he titled, Proposte Monocrome, Epoca Blu / Monochrome Proposition, Blue Epoch, he presented eleven canvases painted a uniform vivid blue. They were hung unframed and suspended on wires away from the gallery wall so they appeared to hover in the air. He stated an intention to produce “invisible paintings”, where the canvas disappears behind the colour.

Jackson Pollock took the connections between musical and visual compositions, that Wassily Kandinsky had famously explored, and ran — or more like danced — with them. Pollock’s early works had been distorted figurative paintings that were in keeping with the fashion of American Expressionism at the time which, in turn, had developed from a wider interest in the works of The Blue Rider, including Kandinsky and Gabriele Münter, and the Spanish-born styles of Joan Miró and Pablo Picasso.

Like many of their antecedents, the Abstract Expressionists of the USA progressed from figurative, through distortion, towards the abstract. Kandinsky, the Russian artist who had taught at the influential Bauhaus, had approached canvas and paint purely as a means of composition. In much the same way, a great composer approaches an orchestra and its instruments where the music itself remains intangible and abstract, though often emotive. …

Announcing The Signifier Six Shot Gallery…

Happy New Year and welcome to this sixth edition of our newsletter, with editor’s picks, a small selection of beautiful books, useful online resources, and a round-up of a couple of popular articles, recently published in Signifier plus exciting news of our new online contemporary art gallery…

Each exhibition showcases just six images by each artist. These six images are linked in an understandable way — perhaps from the same project, series or dealing with related subjects. They may be linked by aesthetics, techniques, processes, philosophies, formal or conceptual elements. …

Cubism is one of the major movements of Modernism. It was a radical departure from long-established academic approaches and, in more ways than one, took art in exciting new directions. The core concepts that defined the genre grew from the work of three influential painters. Here we will track the early development of the style by taking a glance at a chronological selection of key works by George Braque, Pablo Picasso and Juan Gris…

Georges Braque is a very important artist whose career touches upon, and consolidates, many Modernist styles. His earlier works are considered Fauvist due to the vibrant use of structural colour, strong line and lack of traditional perspective. Like much of the work being produced in the first decade of the Twentieth century, by his fellow French painters like Henri Matisse and André Derain, Braque’s earlier paintings are clearly influenced by the Post- and Neo-Impressionist styles present in the works of Vincent van Gogh… and, just like many of those pioneers, his work was initially misunderstood.

How about some further reading & seasonal gift ideas?

Welcome to this fifth edition of our newsletter, with editor’s picks, a small selection of beautiful books, useful online resources, and a round-up of three popular articles, recently published in Signifier (plus a seasonal bonus one)…

Thank you for your continued interest!

The Ashes of Nash

Secluded in an area of private woodland is ‘Cae’n y Coed’, where a circle of 22 Ash trees stand. They have been growing under the gentle guidance of artist David Nash for more than 40 years. Over the decades he has gradually manipulated their growth so they have bent in towards each other in a vortex that has now met to form a living dome. The dome creates a space that is only a little bit different from its surroundings, yet the sculptural intervention draws our attention to the natural processes and the passage of time. This is a sculpture that exists in the time scale of nature. …

Arrow Blu-ray Film Review

Eureka Blu-ray Film Review