MICHAEL KIDNER DREAMS OF THE WORLD ORDER: EARLY PAINTINGS
MICHAEL KIDNER AND HIS ART For Michael Kidner, the purpose of art was the revelation of reality. In this he was aware that it had much in common with science, in the discoveries of which he maintained a close and intensely intelligent interest. Indeed we know that more than once in his career a new direction was indicated for him by specific articles he had read in The Scientific American, a journal more important to his work than any art magazine. There was something wonderfully serendipitous, it seems, in Michael’s use of scientific research: for example, a momentous change in the course of his work – from pure painting to the placing of objects anterior to the painting, which was to develop as a very fruitful and utterly original line of work – was initially motivated by an article in The Scientific American on the workings of the visual cortex in domestic cats. What he shared as an artist with scientists was an essentially experimental modus operandi. Observation of the world as given was not enough, and its representation, whether ‘objective’ and measured in a predetermined way, or given subjective ‘expression’ by means of painterly gesture, was not an adequate basis for the task he had set himself: to reveal an aspect of reality by means of an ‘image’ that was conterminous with the canvas. It would be achieved through a quasi-analytic but essentially creative process of research. Colour abstraction as an appeal to the spectator’s emotions (in the manner of Rothko, for example) ‘left the mind with nothing to think about’ and encouraged a vaguely religious imprecision of feeling, which he abhorred; the perceptual dazzle of a purely mechanical optical means (as in certain optical illusions, for example) merely stimulated the eye and mind into a mystified amazement. Kidner was after something deeper, a response that would comprehend both mind and emotion, engage the whole person wholly attending. Norbert Lynton intimated correctly that Kidner could have as well looked to music (itself of course a manifestation of mathematical principles – interval, tone, rhythm, resonance etc.) as to the procedures of science for a workable analogy or a way of proceeding. In his notebooks, Kidner wrote: ‘I do not want my work [simply] to describe 4
things as they are, nor as a model for how they might be; but while being descriptive, I also want to penetrate behind the immediate appearance: I want to link things that seem mysterious or not fully understood to things that are less mysterious… to reduce the arbitrariness of description.’ That ‘arbitrariness of description’ is an inevitable outcome of our condition of being in the world. For the world streams in upon us in unstoppable motion, as a kind of chaos out of which we must seize a principle, create a structure: even moments of calm in the phenomenal world are actually made up of thousands of minute modulations and changes, modulations of light and shade: the constant flicker of nature. His art reflects something of this phenomenological evanescence: it presents us with an immediate dynamic experience – ‘movements of colour of light and space’ - at the same moment as it proposes an order that is itself dynamic and provisional. That artistic order, seized from the welter of the perceived world, is a willed act of the imagination. Kidner knew that, and his art was just such a willed and purposeful imaginative ordering. The order in art, which pictures the reality behind the actual, had to be discovered by constant research, inductive experiment and deductive reasoning: ‘The work had to become empirical.’ Inspired by colour theory and optics (and later, mathematics and chaos theory) painting was essentially a practical means to revelation, discovery, surprise and delight. Kidner was, in Wallace Stevens’ great phrase, a ‘connoisseur of chaos.’ He knew, moreover, that the idea of order as realised in art (what Stevens called the ‘the supreme fiction’) was, as he said, ‘not a model for how things might be’ – not an ideal, not something spiritual or mystical – but an abstract manifestation of material reality. It was experienced by the mind through the physical senses – aesthesis - and recognised as a reality intrinsically beautiful and changeable. Michael Kidner knew that art is central to the human need to map our world; it is a cartography of the spirit that begins in perception and ends in wonder. He would have deeply appreciated Georges Braque’s wonderful pensée: ‘Sensation, revelation.’ Mel Gooding, 2009 / 2012 5
Violet, Black, White and Yellow c.1959 Oil on linen 101 x 152 cm / 40 x 60 in Provenance Discovered: Michael Kidner ’s studio, 2010 Archive Fig. 4, 5 & 6
6
7
Circle after Image 1959-60 Oil on canvas 151.5 x 124.5 cm / 60 x 49 in Archive: Fig. 7 & 8
8
9
Green on Black, Red on Pink c.1960 Oil on linen 96.5 x 122 cm / 38 x 48 in Provenance Exhibited: Grabowski Gallery, London, 1962 Discovered: Michael Kidner ’s studio, 2010 Archive: Fig. 4
10
11
Untitled c.1960 Oil on linen 124 x 151 cm / 49 x 59½ in Provenance Discovered: Michael Kidner ’s studio, 2010
12
13
Untitled c.1960 Oil on linen 101 x 121.5 cm / 40 x 48 in Provenance Discovered: Michael Kidner ’s studio, 2010
14
15
Pink, Black and Violet, Ochre c.1960 Oil on linen 76 x 101 cm / 30 x 40 in Provenance Discovered: Michael Kidner ’s studio, 2010 Archive: Fig. 10
16
17
Aluminium, White and Concealed Yellow 1962 Aluminium foil, paint on wood 122 x 183 x 5 cm / 48Âź x 72Âź x 2 in Provenance Exhibited: Grabowski Gallery, London, 1964 Grabowski Gallery, London, 1968 Serpentine Gallery, London, 1984 Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1985 Flowers Gallery, London, 2011
18
19
Big Pink 1962 Aluminium foil, paint on wood 155 x 145 x 19 cm / 61¼ x 57¼ x 7½ in Provenance Exhibited: Grabowski Gallery, London, 1964 Serpentine Gallery, London, 1984 Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1985
20
21
Brown with Blue Stripe, Black with Red Stripe, White with off White Stripe No. 1 c.1962 Oil on linen 192.5 x 136.5 cm / 76 x 54 in Provenance Exhibited: Grabowski Gallery, London, 1962 Discovered: Michael Kidner ’s studio, 2010 Archive Fig. 4
22
23
Stripes Study for Bill 1962 Oil on canvas 121 x 151 cm / 48 x 59½ in Archive Fig. 4
24
25
Violet, Ochre and Blue Stripes c.1963 Oil on linen 126 x 76 cm / 49ž x 30 in Provenance Discovered: Michael Kidner ’s studio, 2010 Archive Fig. 4
26
27
Blue, Green and Grey 1963 Oil on canvas 168 x 183 cm / 66 x 72 in Provenance Exhibited: Grobowski Gallery, London, 1964 Flowers Gallery, London, 2004 MAMCO, Geneva, 2005 Archive Fig. 11 & 12
28
29
Green, White and Yellow Moire 1963 Oil on canvas 104 x 127 cm / 41 x 50 in Provenance Exhibited: Grobowski Gallery, London, 1964 Flowers Gallery, London, 2007 Collection: The Estate of Naomi Weaver
30
31
Red, Green and Blue 1963 Oil on canvas 109 x 152 cm / 43 x 60 in Provenance Exhibited: Serpentine Gallery, London, 1984 Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1985 Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz, 1985 Galeria Krzystofory, Krakow, 1985 Muzeum Narodowe, Wroclaw, 1985
Mark Barrow Fine Art, London, 2008 Archive Fig. 17
32
33
Orange, Blue and Green 1964 Oil on canvas 125 x 152 cm / 49¼ x 60 in Provenance Exhibited: Grabowski Gallery, London, 1964 Serpentine Gallery, London, 1984 Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1985 Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz, 1985 Galeria Krzystofory, Krakow, 1985 Muzeum Narodowe, Wroclaw, 1985 Collection: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation/José de Azeredo Perdigão Modern Art Centre Collection, Lisbon Archive Fig. 15
34
35
Orange, Violet and Pink 1964 Oil on canvas 162.5 x 218.5 / 64 x 86 in Provenance Exhibited: Grabowski Gallery, London, 1964 Collection: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation/JosĂŠ de Azeredo PerdigĂŁo Modern Art Centre Collection, Lisbon Archive Fig. 16
36
37
Blue, Green, Pink (Times Magazine) No. 2 c.1964 Oil on linen 151 x 122 cm / 59 x 48 in Provenance Discovered: Michael Kidner ’s studio, 2010 No.1, Illustrated in Op-Art: Pictures that Attack the Eye, Time Magazine, October 1964 Archive Fig. 4, 13 & 14
38
39
Blue, Green, Violet and Brown Relief 1966 Acrylic on canvas on board 142 x 185 x 12 cm / 56 x 73 x 5 in Provenance Exhibited: Tate Gallery, London, 1967 Arnolfini, Bristol, 1967 Serpentine Gallery, London, 1984 Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1985
40
41
Butterfly Wings 1966 Oil on canvas 183 x 168 cm / 72¼ x 66¼ in Provenance: Exhibited: Axiom Gallery, London, 1967 Serpentine Gallery, London, 1984 Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1985 RWA, Bristol, 2011 Archive Fig. 18
42
43
3 Sets of Primaries c.1967 Oil on linen 151 x 120.5 cm / 60 x 47½ in Provenance Discovered: Michael Kidner ’s studio, 2010
44
45
Green (For Grabowski) 1968 Acrylic on cotton duck 168 x 121.5 cm / 66½ x 48 in Provenance Exhibited: Grobowski Gallery, London, 1968 Discovered: Michael Kidner ’s studio, 2010 Archive Fig. 4
46
47
48
ARCHIVE
49
OPTICAL ART
Fig. 1
In a statement written for the catalogue of his exhibition at the Grabowski Gallery (Fig. 2) , Michael Kidner grasps the nettle that seems to threaten his kind of art. ‘Optics,’ he begins, ‘presents the challenge that was once offered by perspective.’ The analogy works well. It evokes the excitement of Florence’s new pictorial science - Uccello earning black looks by his obsession with it, generations of painters learning to control a powerful but tricky weapon with which to conquer reality, a hint of fear, perhaps, before its harsh clarity and unidealistic foreshortenings. For the science of perspective to be formulated it had first to be desired, and while it could promote some aspects of representation and expression it could never become a self-sufficient material for art. So it is too with what is becoming known as optical art, in which simple elements of form and colour are nakedly composed to act on our retinal and conceptual processes. Obviously this kind of art can be as empty as any other, including representational painting within a perspective framework. It can also offer full-bodied emotional and aesthetic experiences, depending as always on the motives and profundity of the artist, and more than normally on the spectator’s willingness to respond. Nowhere is this response more profitably made than before Kidner’s highly original recent works; nowhere is it more irresistibly solicited. The gallery shines with his light and colour. The reliefs (made in 1962-3), with their reflecting surfaces and sometimes hidden colours, all most simply arranged; dissolve before our eye, into tinted pools of light. The paintings (1963-4) do not so much dazzle as subtly lead us into discovering their contrapuntal play of shifting planes. They have their own key-signatures and tempi, tending more to allegretto and andante than to vivace con brio. But stirring though their effects of space and colour are, these works would still be little more than virtuoso demonstrations if they lacked any other kind of motivation. Kidner’s paintings have always been acutely personal, as for that matter have Bridget Riley ’s. His present idiom of simple optical factors has been achieved very gradually. For Vasarely optical art is a means to environmental order and a critique of the chaotic world of tachism and action painting. Seven or eight years ago Kidner was working under the influence of De Kooning. True, he made less emphatic use of his brushmark and colours 50
and produced a more temperate kind of expressionism, but expressionism it was and so it has remained. Images presented through sonorous colours in unstable relationships continue to be his, means for expressing personal experiences, and in simplifying his means he has been able to intensify his expression. Each picture corresponds associatively with an aspect of his existence, and to see his work as impersonal (as people tend to do, confronted with anything less than violent display) is to remain blind to its subjective purpose. Optical art is not a system. It is a pictorial language of exceptional clarity. Kidner shows that this language is capable of profoundly poetic content. Norbert Lynton First published in The New Statesman 24 May 1964
51
Michael Kidner notebook 1963 Above
Fig. 2
Statement by Michael Kidner First published Grabowski Gallery, London, 1964 Right
Fig. 3
Unpublished writings by Michael Kidner Courtesy TGA 201019, Michael Kidner Archive, Tate Gallery Archive
52
53
54
Fig. 5 Yellow into White Violet into Black 1959 Oil on paper 25.5 x 41 cm / 10¼ x 16¼ in
Fig. 6 Michael Kidner sketchbook 1963 Courtesy TGA 201019, Michael Kidner Archive, Tate Gallery Archive
Left
Fig. 4
Stocklist (unstretched/ stretched) Discovered Michael Kidner ’s studio 2010
55
Fig. 7 Untitled After Image 1959 Oil on paper 38 x 25 cm / 15 x 10 in
Provenance Exhibited: Royal Academy, London, 2009 Hubert Winter Gallery, Vienna, 2010
Fig. 8 Circle After Image 1959 Oil on paper 51 x 38 cm / 20 x 15 in
Provenance Exhibited: Serpentine Gallery, London, 1984 Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1985 Royal Academy, London, 2009 Hubert Winter Gallery, Vienna, 2010
56
Fig. 9 Untitled 1960 Oil on paper 28 x 38 cm / 11 x 15 in
Provenance Exhibited: Royal Academy, London, 2009 Hubert Winter Gallery, Vienna, 2010
Fig. 10 Lozenges 1960 Oil on paper 28 x 37 cm / 11 x 14½ in
57
Fig 11. Grabowski Gallery, London 1964
Courtesy TGA 201019, Michael Kidner Archive, Tate Gallery Archive
Fig 12. Grey Wedges on Blue and Turquoise 1963 Oil on paper 38 x 28 cm / 15 x 11 in
58
Fig. 13 Untitled 1964 Oil on paper 30 x 19 cm / 11 ¾ x 7½ in
Provenance Exhibited: Royal Academy, London, 2009 Hubert Winter Gallery, Vienna, 2010
Private Collection
Fig 14. Sketchbook, August 1963
Courtesy TGA 201019, Michael Kidner Archive, Tate Gallery Archive
59
Fig. 15 Lightbulb 1964 Oil on paper 39 x 56 cm / 15½ x 22¼ in
Provenance Exhibited: Royal Academy, London, 2009 Hubert Winter Gallery, Vienna, 2010
Fig. 16 Untitled 1963 Oil on paper 28 x 38 cm / 11¼ x 15 in
Provenance Exhibited: Royal Academy, London, 2009 Hubert Winter Gallery, Vienna, 2010
60
Fig. 17 Untitled 1963 Oil on paper 23 x 23 cm / 9Âź x 9Âź in
Provenance Exhibited: Royal Academy, London, 2009 Hubert Winter Gallery, Vienna, 2010
Fig. 18 Untitled 1966 Oil pastel on paper 28 x 25 cm / 11 x 10 in
Provenance Exhibited: Royal Academy, London, 2009 Hubert Winter Gallery, Vienna, 2010
61
MICHAEL KIDNER RA (1917-2009) 1917
Born, Kettering, Northamptonshire
Prizes and Honours 1963/65 1964 1969 1978 2004
John Moore’s Painting Prize Gulbenkian Foundation Purchase Award Arts Council, Belfast, Northern Ireland International Print Biennale, Norway Elected as a Royal Academician
Solo Exhibitions 1959 1962 1964
St Hilda’s College, Oxford Grabowski Gallery, London, with William Tucker Grabowski Gallery, London
Courtesy TGA 201019, Michael Kidner Archive, Tate Gallery Archive
1967
Axiom Gallery, London Gardner Centre Gallery, University of Sussex, Brighton Arnolfini, Bristol, with Malcolm Hughes
Michael Kidner, London 1966 Photograph by Jorge S. Lewinski © The Lewinski Archive at Chatsworth Michael
62
1974 1975 1981 1983 1984 1985
Betty Parsons Gallery, New York City, with Bruce Tippett, Michael Tyzack and John Walker Lucy Milton Gallery, London Jacomo Santiveri Gallery, Paris, with Norman Dilworth and Jeffrey Steele ON Gallery, Proznan, Poland Kunstfackskolan, Stockholm, Sweden Galleri Sankt Olaf, Norrkoping, Sweden, with KG Nilson Air Gallery, London Galleri Engstrom, Stockholm, with Francis Pratt, David Saunders and Gillian Wise Ciobotaru. Tour to Norrkopings Konstmuseum and MalmoKonstall Michael Kidner; Painting, Drawing & Sculpture, 1959-84, Serpentine Gallery, London (ACGB Exhibition) Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne (ACGB Exhibition)
Hatton Gallery Newcastle upon Tyne, 1985 Š Photograph by P. Raftery
1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1993/4 1994 1995 1997 2001 2003 2003 2004
Museum of Sztuki, Lodz, Poland. Organised by Ryszard Stanislawski, sponsored by the British Council and Polish Government, Galeria Krzystofory, Krakow Victoria Art Gallery, Bath Museum Narodowe, Wroclaw, Poland Cieszyn Gallery of Contemporary Art, Poland Joszefvarosi Kaillito Terem Gallery, Budapest, Hungary Amos Anderson Museum, Helsinki, Finland, with Matti Kujasalo and Marcello Morandini Escola De Artes Visuales, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Galerie De Sluis, Leidschendam, Holland, with Fre Ilgen, Leonardo Mosso and Sigurd Rompza Galerie St Johann, Saarbricken, West Germany, with Ilgen, Mosso and Rompza The Wave: Concepts in Construction, Galerie Hubert Winter, Vienna, Austria Mario Flecha Gallery, London Eine Neue Raumlichkeit, Galerie Schegl, Zurich, with Ilgen, Mosso and Rompza At-Tension to the Wave, Centre for International Contemporary Arts, New York Galerie Bismark, Bremen Galerie Hubert Winter, Vienna, Austria Oddzial Museum, Rezydeancji Ksiezymlyn, Museum Sztuki, Lodz, Poland Galerie Hoffmann, Friedberg, Germany Centre for the Philosophy of the Natural and Social Sciences, London Galerie Emilia Suciu, Ettlingen, Germany Henry Moore Institute, Leeds Michael Kidner, Work in Progress, Emilia Suciu Gallery, Ettlingen, Germany Galerie Hubert Winter, Vienna Love is a Virus from Outer Space, Flowers East, London Michael Kidner, In front of his own Image, Galerie Hoffmann, Friedberg, Germany Rhombic Speculations, Flowers Central, London
63
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Creationism?, Muzalewska Gallery, Poznan, Poland Equilibrium Disturbed, Foksal Gallery, Warsaw, Poland No Goals in a Quicksand, Flowers East, London The Novelty of Silkscreen, Flowers Graphics, London Dreams of the World Order 1960s, Royal Academy of Arts, London Dreams of the World Order 1960s, Galerie Hubert Winter, Vienna Winterson Gallery, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, with Louise Bourgeois, Tracy Emin, Luke Jerram & Bridget Riley Dreams of the World Order: Early Paintings, Flowers Gallery, London
Group Exhibitions 1957 1958 1960 1961 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973
64
New Exhibition 1957, Penwith Society, St Ives AIA 25, RBA Galleries, London New Vision, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull AIA Group Show, London Start a Collection, AIA, London FPG8, Walker Gallery, London 20 painters, AIA, London Momentum 2, Raille Gallery, London Spring Exhibition 1963, Bradford City Art Gallery, Bradford John Moores Liverpool Exhibition, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool About Round/London Galleries, Leeds University Seven ’64, McRoberts and Tunnard Gallery, London Painting Towards Environment, ACGB touring exhibition Cross Section 1964: London-Leicester, Leicester Museum and Art Gallery Formal Visual Dialogue, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth New Painting 1961-1964, ACGB touring exhibition John Moores Liverpool Exhibition, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool Spring Exhibition 1965, Bradford City Art Gallery, Bradford The Responsive Eye, MOMA, New York and tour of USA Trends, Municipal Art Gallery, Manchester Post Formal Painting, Reading University Movements, Municipal Art Gallery, Manchester Ten ’66, McRoberts and Tunnard Gallery, London First Exhibition, Axiom Gallery, London Recent Purchases by the Contemporary Arts Society, Whitworth Gallery, Manchester Corsham Painters, ACGB touring exhibition Undefined Situation, Howard Roberts Gallery, Cardiff Summer Exhibition, Penwith Society, St Ives Kinetic Art, Herbert Art Gallery, Coventry Recent British Paintings: Peter Stuyvesant Foundation Collection, Tate Gallery, London Post-Formal Painting, Midland Group, Nottingham 1st Edinburgh Open 100, Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh John Moores Liverpool Exhibition, Walker Arts Gallery, Liverpool 100th Exhibition, Grabowski Gallery, London Henri Gallery, Washington DC Indian Triennale, British Council Systeemi, Amos Anderson Museum, Helsinki Open Painting Exhibition 1970, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Belfast Past Artists in Residence, 1965-69, Gardner Centre Gallery, University of Sussex Colour Extensions, Camden Arts Centre, London Matrix, Arnolfini, Bristol Systems, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London Third International Print Biennale, Bradford System, Lucy Milton Gallery, London First Contact, Peterborough
1974 1975 1976 1977 1979 1979-80 1980 1981 1982 1983-84 1983-85 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1988/89 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993
Systems II, Polytechnic of Central London, London Critic’s Choice (Marina Vaizey), Arthur Tooth & Sons, London British Painting ’74, Hayward Gallery, London Contemporary Arts Society Art Fair, London Recent British Paintings, Musée de Grenoble, France Colour, Southern Arts Touring Exhibition Rational Concepts, Touring Holland Colour Symposium, Royal College of Art, London British Painting 1952-1977, Royal Academy, London Constructive Context, ACGB Touring Exhibition Rational Practice, University of Sussex 4th Norwegian International Print Biennale, Bibliotek, Fredrikstad, Norway Sixth International Print Biennale, Bradford First European Print Biennale, Heidelberg Eleventh International Print Biennale, Tokyo Photography in Print Making, V&A Museum, London 5th Norwegian International Print Biennale, Bibliotek, Fredrikstad, Norway 8th International Print Biennale, Krakow, Poland Book Works, Touring Exhibition in UK and USA Contemporary Artists in Camden, Camden Arts Centre, London Painter-Printmakers, West Surrey College of Art, Farnham Series, Touring Exhibition Concepts in Construction 1910-1980, Touring museums in the USA and Canada World Print IV, Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco and Tour of Museums in USA British Artists at Cyprus College of Art, Woodlands Art Gallery, London British Artists Books, Atlantis Gallery, London Air Gallery, London Imaginez Construire, Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris Independent Curators International, New York Contemporary Art Fair, London (represented Galerie Hoffmann) 40 Years of Modern Art, Tate Modern, London 11th International Print Biennale, Pawilon Wystawowy, Poland Galerie de Sluis, Leidschendam, Holland PRO Conferentie, Dordrecht, Holland 3rd International Biennial Print Exhibit, ROC, Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan Null Dimension, Galerie New Space, Fulda, West Germany Corsham Painters, Touring UK Arte Sistematico y Constructivo, Centro Cultural de la Villa de Madrid, Madrid Constructive Versus Computer, Galerie FARO, Rotterdam EKOart, Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Britisch-Systematic, Stiftung fur Konstructive & Konkrete Kunst, Zurich Franklin Furnace Museum, New York, Travelling to Nelson Atkins Museum Contemporary Illustrated Books; Word & Image, 1967-1980, University of Iowa Museum of Art, Kansas City Art Frankfurt, Galerie Hubert Winter, Vienna and Galerie Fabian Walter, Basel Between Dimensions, Curwen Gallery, London Universal Progression, Central Exhibition Hall, Moscow Art 21, Galerie Fabian Walter, Basel Sammlung Jurgen Blum, Museum Modern Art, Hunfeld, West Germany Art Frankfurt, Gallery Hubert Winter, Frankfurt Art London, Adrian Mibus Gallery, London Art Miami, Austin Desmond Gallery, London Critics Choice (Clare Henry), Cooling Gallery, London BaGaGe, Galerij van De Lawei, Drachten, Holland (touring to Gmunden, Austria) Galerie St Johann, Saarbrucken Musee d’Art Contemporain de Lyon, W Lodsi, Lyon & Muzeum Sztuki Art Frankfurt, Galerie Hubert Winter, Frankfurt The Sixties, Barbican Art Gallery, London Creativity and Cognition, Loughborough University, England
65
1994 1995 1996 1997 1999 2001 2002 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
66
Aspects Actuels de la Mouvance Construite Internationale, Musee des Beaux-Arts, Verviers, Belgium Egypt International Print Triennale, Cairo Art Frankfurt, Gallerie Hoffman, Frankfurt Pro, Palais Royal, Antwerp (originally in Verviers) Basel Art Fair, Galerie Hoffman, Basel Blick uber den Armelkanal, Pfalzgalerie, Kaiserslautern, Germany Constructive Context, Tate Modern, London Structures on the Edge of Chaos, Whitford Fine Art, London Post-War to POP, Alexandria, Washington D.C. Madi-Art Gallery, Arte Struktura International Gallery, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Basel Art Fair, Galerie Hoffmann, Basel Madi Art, Macey Center, New Mexico Tech, USA Kunstmuseum Thun, Kunst Konkert, Switzerland Neuer Kunstverein, Aschaffenburg e.V. Dehnbar, Germany Immerzeit, APC Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland Creativity and Cognition, James France Exhibition Hall, University of Loughborough, England Korrekturen, Krems, Austria Art Frankfurt, Galerie Hoffmann, Frankfurt Basel Art Fair, Galerie Hoffmann, Basel British Abstract Art, Flowers East, London British Abstract Art, Galerie St Johann, Saarbrucken Abstract- Optical-Kinetic, Belgrave Gallery, London The Berardo Collection, Sintra Museum of Modern Art, Portugal Basel Art Fair, Galerie Hoffmann, Basel Art Frankfurt, Galerie Hoffmann, Frankfurt Bedales Exhibition, Business Design Centre, London Science in the Arts Arts in the Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest British Abstract Art, Flowers East, London Le Musee de Nantes, The Madi Group, France Thinking Big, Peggy Guggenheim Museum, Venice Flowers II, Flowers Central, London Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London Six from the Sixties, Flowers East, London Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London Stroll On, Aspects of British Art in the Sixties, MAMCO, Geneva, Switzerland Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London Swinging London, Grabowski Collection, Museum Sztuki, Lodz, Poland Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London Paintings from the Noughties, Letterkenny Arts Centre, Northern Ireland Circa 1967: Works from the Arts Council Collection, Milton Keynes Gallery Towards a Rational Aesthetic, Osborne Samuel, London A Rational Aesthetic: The Systems Group and Associated Artists, Southampton City Art Gallery New Walls From Europe, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London Brit Art of the Sixties, Mark Barrow Fine Art, London The Sculpture Show, V22 Contemporary Art Collection, London Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London Abstraction and the Human Figure in CAMs British Art Collection, Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon Mirrors of Continuous Change, Taekwang Industrial Co. Ltd, Korea Modern Masters, Flowers Gallery, London Memorial, Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London What a Relief, Flowers Gallery, London Live Your Questions Now, Mackintosh Museum, Glasgow
Commisions 1988 1989 1995 1996
Sculpture for the Museo Internazionale di Scultura all’aperto Citta’di Portofino, Italy Commission for sculpture in Vlissingen, Holland A net construction in each of the five windows of the new building, Dresdner Bank, Merseburg, Germany Suspended sculpture, Aldeman Smith School Library, Nuneaton, England Artists in Residence, Experiment with Virtual Reality, Lutchi Research Centre, Loughborough, England
Lectures 1988 1993 2005
Keynote speaker PRO Conference, Fulda, Germany Keynote speaker at International Symposium Creativity and Cognition, Lutchi Centre, Loughborough University, England Exploring Art & Mathematics, The Queen’s College, Oxford
Selected Bibliography Collectors Choice, The Director, November 1960 Norbert Lynton, Michael Kidner, Art International, November 1961 Norbert Lynton, Grabowski Gallery, catalogue introduction, 1962 David Sylvester, No Baconians, New Statesman, April 1962 Helen Lambert, Michael Kidner, New York Herald Tribune, April 1962 G. M. Butcher, Kidner and Tucker, Arts Review, April 1962 Keith Sutton, Michael Kidner, The Listener, April 1962 Michael Kidner, The Times, April 1962 John Russell, Michael Kidner, Sunday Times, April 1962 Oswell Blakeston, Grabowski Gallery, What’s On In London, April 1962 Norbert Lynton, Grabowski Gallery, Art International, May 1962 Kidner: Grabowski Gallery, Art International, 1964 Kenneth Coutts-Smith, Grabowski Gallery, Arts Review, May 1964 Robert Melville, The World Of Art, The Sunday Times, May 1964 Norbert Lynton, Optical Art, New Statesman, May 1964 (Archive: Fig.1) Guy Brett, Ad Reinhardt and Michael Kidner Exhibitions, Manchester Guardian, May 1964 Nigel Gosling, Michael Kidner, The Observer, May 1964 Jules Goodard, Developments out of Situation: Malcolm Hughes, Michael Kidner and Michael Tyzack Interviewed, Isis, June 1964 David Thompson, Michael Kidner, Queen Magazine, June 1964 Irving Sandler, Op Art: Pictures That Attack The Eye, Time Magazine, October 1964 Michael Kidner, Architectural Review, October 1964 Ronald Alley, Formal Visual Dialogue, catalogue introduction, November 1964 Philip James, Post Formal Painting, catalogue introduction, January 1967 Norbert Lynton, Systems And Sensibilities, The Guardian, July 1967 Guy Brett, Michael Kidner ’s New Paintings, The Times, July 1967 Edward Lucie-Smith, London Community, Studio International, July 1967 James Belsey, Exploration Of Space – By Two Artists, October 1967 Four British Painters, Betty Parsons Gallery, October 1967 Teachers’ Art Goes On Show, Bath and Wilts Evening Chronicle, November 1967 Canvas And Sculpture Joining Hands, The Christian Science Monitor, December 1967 Alan Bowness, Recent British Painting, No.24, 1967 Axiom Gallery, Michael Kidner/ Guy Burn, Arts Review, 1967 Stephen Bann, Systems, catalogue introduction, 1973 Peter Fuller, Michael Kidner, Arts Review, April 1974 Marina Vaizey, Signs of Life, Sunday Times, September 1974 Stephen Bann, Rational Practice, catalogue introduction, 1978 Pat Gilmour, Michael Kidner, Arts Review, June 1979 Mel Gooding, Michael Kidner/ Julia Farrer, Arts Review 35, No.3, February 1983
67
Sarah Kent, Time Out, February 1983 Stephen Bann, Michael Kidner, Art Monthly, April 1983 Peter Brades, Michael Kidner, Artscribe, April 1983 The Arts Council of Great Britain, No.40, March 1984 June Arts News Sheet (The British Council), No.22, April 1985 Irving Sandler, American Art of the 1960’s, Harper 7 Row, New York, 1988 Michael Kidner, The Point, The Line and the Plane, Pro magazine No.5 Markus Mittringer, Experimentelles in Abgeschiedener Strenge, Die Presse, Vienna, February 1990 Michael Kidner, New Yorker, August 1990 Susanna Bichler, Farbraume, Falter, Vienna, February 1990 Stephen Foster, Irving Sandler, CICA, New York, 1990 Prof. Stephen Bann, Britisch-Systematisch, Stiftung für Konstruktive & Konkrete, Kunst, Zurich, 1990 Sabine Weder-Arlitt, Gefuhle im Systematischen Kleid, Algemeiner, Anzeigner, Zurich, February 1990 Eleanor Heartney, Michael Kidner at CICA, Art in America, January 1991 Dorothee Baer-Bogenschutz, Frankfurter Rundschau, 1992/ 93 Patricia Railing, Michael Kidner, Pro Magazine, March 1993 Jaromir Jedlinnski, Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz, Poland, 1993 Anna Sacuik, Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz, Poland, 1993 Dorothee Baer-Bogenschutz, Bis der Kreis in Wellen Bricht, Frankfurter Rundschau, Die Rheinpfalz Nr. 258, November 1994 Sigmund Rompza, Emilia Suciu Gallery, Ettlingen, Germany, 1995 Sensing Systems: Michael Kidner The Art Book, Stadt Thun, Thuner Tagblatt, Freitag, June 1996 Nr. 149, Der Bund, July 1996 Kunst Konkret 2, August 1996 Work in Progress; Michael Kidner, Henry Moore Publication, 1997 ‘Der Fionderad’, Das Abenteuer der Erklarung, March 2001 Wiener Zeitung, March 2001 ART, March 2001 Prof. Stephen Bann, Michael Kidner, Love is a Virus from Outer Space, Flowers East, catalogue introduction, 2001 Linda Candy and Ernest Edmonds, Explorations in Art and Technology, 2002 Jaromir Jedlinski, Michael Kidner, Creationism? Jedlinski – Kidner. Conversation, 2006 Francis Pratt, Irving Sandler, Michael Kidner, Flowers Gallery Publication, 2007 Andrew Lambirth, Bucolic Pleasures, The Spectator, October 2007 Matthew Collings, PATTERNS “R” US, Help the world with abstract Values, Modern Painters, March 2008 Michael Kidner, A Constructivist by Nature, RA Magazine, September 2009 Michael Kidner: Abstract Painter and Sculptor who was an early exponent of Op-Art and became absorbed by Systemic structure and optical effect, The Times, December 2009 Michael McNay, Michael Kidner obituary: Op art pioneer whose work was informed by mathematics and chaos theory, The Guardian, December 2009 Charles Darwent, Michael Kidner: Pioneering Op artist inspired by mathematics who strove to eliminate subjectivity from his work, The Independent, December 2009 Alison Oldham, Finding inspiration in the world of science, Ham & High, December 2009 Michael Kidner, painter and sculptor who pioneered Op art in the 1960s and took a scientific approach to colour and form, The Daily Telegraph, December 2009 Three Academicians remember their fellow RA’s with warmth and tenderness: Modern painters, RA Magazine, Spring 2010 Bristol RWA gallery reunites Op Art artists Bridget Riley and Michael Kidner, Guide 2 Bristol, September 2011 Public Collections Amos Anderson Museum, Helsinki, Finland Arts Council of Great Britain British Council Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon Contemporary Art Society, London
68
Daimler Chrysler, Germany Galerie Wurzburg, Germany Huddersfield City Art Gallery Malmo Konsthall, Sweden Manchester City Art Gallery Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden Museum of Modern Art, New York Museum Sztuki, Lodz, Poland Museum of Architecture, Wroclaw, Poland National Museum, Poznan, Poland National Museum, Wroclaw, Poland National Gallery of Australia, Canberra New College, Oxford Norrkopings Konstmuseum, Sweden Nurenberg Museum of Contemporary Art, Germany Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern, Germany Sintra Museum of Modern Art, Portugal Southampton City Art Gallery Stuyvesant Foundation, Holland Sussex University
Yellow Grey Relief 1963 Acrylic on board construction 109 x 152 cm / 43 x 59ž in Collection: Tate, London
Tate, London The Berardo Collection, Staditische Galerie, Wurzburg The Government Art Collection, London The Henry Moore Sculpture Trust, Leeds University of East Anglia, Norwich University of Wales Vanderbilt University, USA Victoria & Albert Museum, London Walker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool
Yellow, Blue and Violet 1963 Oil on canvas 167 x 152 cm / 66 x 60 in John Moore’s prizewinner, 1963 Collection: Walker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool
69
© 2012 Michael Kidner Art Ltd, Flowers Gallery, Mel Gooding and the Estate of Norbert Lynton 82 Kingsland Road London E2 8DP T +44 (0)20 7920 7777 F +44 (0)20 7920 7770 info@flowersgallery.com 21 Cork Street London W1S 3LZ T +44 (0)20 7439 7766 F +44 (0)20 7439 7733 info@flowersgallery.com 529 West 20th Street New York NY 10011 T +(1) 212 439 1700 F +(1) 212 439 1525 newyork@flowersgallery.com www.flowersgallery.com www.michaelkidner.com
Published on the occasion of: Michael Kidner, Dreams of the World Order: Early Paintings 12 September - 20 October 2012 Curated by Amie Conway Co-ordination/ Editorial: Amie Conway Design: Ewan Eason Photography: Dave Hanger, Chris Littlewood Printing: Push, London ISBN 978-1-906412-53-1 Edition 1000 Cover image: Blue, Green, Pink (Times Magazine) No. 2 c.1964, Oil on linen, 151 x 122 cm / 59 x 48 in A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Curatorial Note: Dreams of the World Order: Early Paintings explores four areas of Michael Kidner’s painting practice: After Image, Stripe, Moiré and Wave. These are Kidner’s progressive experiments with optical effects and rational procedures, inspired by his preoccupation with how space, pattern and form function. A year after Kidner’s death in 2009, a number of rolled paintings were discovered at his Hampstead Hill Gardens studio. These have now been reunited with this iconic body of work. With special thanks to Tate Gallery Archive.