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              Bear Lane Gallery, Oxford, 1972          please click on the icons above and the 'live' text below to navigate the site

 

                     

Nick Waterlow, Director at the Bear Lane Gallery kindly offered me this show. I wanted to use the exhibition to explore ideas about gambling and chance. Some people had characterised my work as analytical, which was not strictly true. Although my painting process required a considerable degree of strategic planning, the work was always open to chance and to intuition even though the organisations of the paintings where often symmetrical in appearance. I was interested in the way my western cultural heritage forced me to perceive 2 dimensional images in particular ways. I would have liked to be able to step outside of these traditions but found I was not able to transgress the boundaries of these habits except in minor ways. These works play with this problem and also with illusion itself: exact copies of devices being used to articulate spaces in very different ways.

 

There are also references to other forms of my work that related to my interest in paintings in an architectural or environmental setting and could even be conceived of as drawings for sculptures.

 

The space at the Bear Lane was a difficult one due to the narrow space and low beamed ceilings, but the exhibition proved a great stimulus for me to explore my ideas and to give the viewer a visual treat.

 

Some of these works were shown again at the Woodlands Gallery in Greenwich in an exhibition entitled ‘Space at the Quadrangle’.  The space of this gallery suited the work much better. ‘Good and Bad Luck at the Tables’ was acquired for the City of York Art Gallery.

 

I was recently greatly saddened to hear of Nick Waterlow’s death at the hands of his own son. Although I had no contact with him after this exhibition I used to get reports of his success in Australia from my friend, the artist, William Delafield-Cook. I found Nick to be a great human being and a genuine supporter of artists and their work. I count myself very lucky to have met him.

 

 

'Roulette' 68" x 96"  acrylic 1972

 

 

 

 

 

 

'Wheel of fortune' 68" x 84" acrylic 1972 

The footprints reference recent moon walks

 

 

 

 

 

 

'Pure Luck' 40" x 50" acrylic 1972 (private collection)

 

 

 

 

 

 

'Game with no stakes' 48" x 58" acrylic 1972

 

 

 

 

 

 

'Good and bad luck at the tables' 68" x 68"  acrylic 1972 (private collection)

 

 

 

 

 

 

'Patience lost' 68" x 48" acrylic 1972

 

 

 

 

 

 

'One armed bandit'  68" x 48" acrylic 1972

 

 

 

 

 

 

Installation: Bear Lane Gallery, Oxford, 1972

 

 

 

Left: 'Roulette' 68" x 96"  acrylic 1972

Centre: ' Two good hands' 68" x 84" acrylic 1972

Right: 'Patience lost' 68" x 48" acrylic 1972 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Left: 'Good and bad luck at the tables'

68" x 68"   acrylic 1972

Centre: 'One armed bandit'

68" x 48" acrylic 1972

Right: 'Crap game' 68" x 96" 1972

 

 

 

 

 

 

Left: 'Good and bad luck at the tables'

68" x 68"   acrylic 1972

Right: 'Wheel of fortune' 68" x 84" acrylic 1972 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Left: 'Wheel of fortune' 68" x 84" acrylic 1972

Right: 'Pure Luck' 40" x 50" acrylic 1972              

 

 

 

 

 

 

Left: 'One armed bandit'  68" x 48" acrylic 1972

Right: 'Crap game' 68" x 96" 1972 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right: 'Good and bad luck at the tables' 68" x 68" acrylic 1972

Centre: 'One armed bandit' 68" x 48"

acrylic 1972

Left: 'Crap game' 68" x 96" acrylic 1972

 

Gallery director Nick Waterlow  is in the foreground

 

 

 Installation:  upstairs gallery, Bear Lane

 

 

 

Left: 'Mirage' 68" x 84" acrylic 1969

Right: ' Float' 36 x 36" acrylic 1969