Ian Davenport: Colourscapes by Waddington Custot

Ian Davenport

Colourscapes

Ian Davenport

Colourscapes

Joseph Constable

Ian Davenport: from duration to instantaneity Every movement, in as much as it is a passage from rest to rest, is absolutely indivisible.1 When looking at the paintings of Ian Davenport, the passages of moment to moment, action to rest and rest to action, appear to coalesce upon the surface of each work. While the artist must, by necessity, divide his actions into individual paintings or series, what is notable about Davenport’s commitment to his medium is a unique ability to mark out in space the pure and uncontrolled flow of time. An idea that the French philosopher, Henri Bergson (1859–1941), continued to return to throughout his career was that what we call ‘time’ is nearly always understood through the constructed, divisible experience of space. The pure continuity of time as it is experienced inside our heads, or durée (duration) as he termed it, is quickly externalised, divided and rendered in space. It becomes subject to the linear determinism of clock time, where past, present and future is marked out around us, simultaneously shaping our environments. Through its rigorous attention to rudimentary acts of mark-making within the medium of painting, Davenport’s work draws our attention to the ways in which time can be expressed in space and the movement from interior to exterior frames of experience. His paintings demonstrate a constant slippage between duration and instantaneity; from the continuous lines of paint that cascade down to the splats of paint that hit the surface, Davenport playfully alternates between the continuity of time and its potential division into marked moments of presentness. Davenport has continued to explore the act of pouring and dripping paint for over twenty years, an act, he says, that is closer to directing than painting.2 Embedded within each of the resultant works, which bring a vibrant and ever-changing repertoire of colours into a symphony of geometric gesture, is a continuous oscillation between control, chance and accident. The latter two of these three variables are very much the paint itself and its unpredictability. The former is represented by the parameters that Davenport sets up, whether this is the method with which he pours the paint, the restriction of the compositional frame, or in the case of his later drip paintings, the syringe, which allows a certain precision for controlling the fall of liquid. As the artist has said: ‘I have to take the painting to the

Davenport working on Everything, Institute of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Warwick, Coventry, 2004

point where I feel completely in control of the material, and after that I can let go to an extent. I need control in order to have that freedom.’3 Davenport’s words are reminiscent of the doctrines set out by Oulipo, the group of French writers and mathematicians who sought to create constrained writing techniques throughout the 60s and 70s by considering literature ‘in the conditional mood; not the imperative.’4 In its reconfiguration of what painting could be rather than what it is, Davenport’s desire to gain freedom through constraint is predicated on the knowledge that artistic expressions, be they writing or painting, are always constrained by something. More often than not, this constraint falls within the time and space of execution: the moments before the line of paint reaches the bottom of the panel or overspills its edge. Davenport does not try to sidestep the reality of painterly constriction, but rather he acknowledges and embraces its presence proactively; he plays comfortably in the space of duration, subverting it from within. What does the space of duration look like in Davenport’s paintings? Writer and curator, Adrian Heathfield, offers what could perhaps be a fitting description. He says: ‘duration will often be accompanied by the spatial senses of expansion, suspension or collapse or by reverential, chaotic or cosmic phenomena, as notions of temporal distinctions are undone.’5 The drip paintings simultaneously hold within their composition the elements that Heathfield describes. Take, for example, one of Davenport’s most recent works: ‘The Harvest (After Van Gogh)’ (2018). From a certain distance, the vertical lines appear distinct and individuated – the ordered formulation of a digital rendering – in an expanded palette stretching from straw yellow to powder blue to acid turquoise. On closer inspection, however, the physicality of the paint’s textured surface starts to reveal itself, whilst the fallibility of its liquidity leads certain lines to gradually merge with those next to them, like glitches within the image. Moreover, the ostensible order and defined space of each colour that is conveyed when viewing from afar quickly starts to undo itself in a beautifully chaotic blur of hues that appear to hum upon the surface. As the paint reaches the bottom of the panel, the pressures of gravity disappear as the horizontality of the studio floor allows the paint to curve at will, accumulating in an abstract puddle of colour and serpentine form. There is a clear sense of enjoyment in these simple painterly movements and the grace with which the liquid is permitted to move in real time. In his discussion of time’s continuous movement, Bergson uses the figure of the dancer as a metaphor for this feeling of grace in motion:

Davenport working on Flow, 2018 (cat. no.17)

…we are led to find a superior ease in the movements which can be foreseen, in the present attitudes in which future attitudes are pointed out and, as it were, prefigured… If curves are more graceful than broken lines, the reason is that, while a curved line changes its direction at every moment, every new direction is indicated in the preceding one. Thus the perception of ease in motion passes over into the pleasure of mastering the flow of time and of holding the future in the present… As we guess almost the exact attitude which the dancer is going to take, he seems to obey us when he really takes it: the regularity of the rhythm establishes a kind of communication between him and us, and the periodic returns of the measure are like so many invisible threads by means of which we set in motion this imaginary puppet.6

Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890), The Harvest, 1888

Paul Cézanne (1839–1906), Forest Interior, 1898–1899

Each of the vertical lines on Davenport’s paintings holds within it the energy and rhythm of Bergson’s dancer; like a chord struck firmly on a piano, it is emitted, held and extended through space, while marking out the time it takes to fall gradually to the ground. As viewers after the fact, what we see is the documentation of a past event, however the residual movement of the artist’s painterly performances is plain to see, as pure time and movement remains marked out in front of us. The temporal passage that Davenport follows across the canvas is also related to the source materials from which he often conceives a new painting. In the current example, it is Vincent van Gogh’s ‘The Harvest’, from 1888, that is the basis informing Davenport’s colour palette. Like a music synthesiser, Van Gogh’s expressionistic brushstrokes are extracted, defined and re-cast in a new rhythmic rendition. This process is not only related to colour, but one also aligned with Van Gogh’s distinctive use of small, intersecting planes of brushwork that start to blend into one another (passage) to Davenport’s own collapsing together of colour and form. The elements of passage that Van Gogh adopts in ‘The Harvest’, a technique that was pioneered by his contemporary, Paul Cézanne, leads to a sense of pictorial inevitability, a layering effect whereby the grounds of the painting lead into one another in a flattening out of three-dimensional space. This blurring of demarcated contours within the painting’s composition, where colour and form start to move together in an expanded passage, is subtly gestured to within Davenport’s abstraction. As each of his paint lines merge and flow in pools of multicolour on the floor, the expressionistic movement of ‘The Harvest’, or even Cézanne’s ‘Forest Interior’ (1898 – 1899), come to mind. Although Davenport’s painting sits firmly within the space of abstraction,

Detail of La Cra, Harvest (After Van Gogh), 2018 (cat. no.1)

the sources that constitute the inspirations for each work, which range from historical paintings to fields of bluebells in nature, are based on an interpretation of colour and form that extends beyond the realm of painting to a wider understanding of the multiple ways in which we intuit the time and space of our environments. While in Davenport’s drip paintings, the sense of duration is one of extended and continuous movement, his ‘splatter’ paintings arise from a similarly temporal and process-based concern. Echoing earlier works, such as when Davenport made paintings using an electric fan in the late 80s, the splatter paintings themselves are a recent departure for the artist, arising whilst working with children to create a wall mural. Noticing the children’s tendency to throw the paint at the wall (and each other) in energetic pelts, the artist became interested in this action and the instantaneity with which he could record a single moment on the canvas. In contrast to the precise and measured application of falling vertical lines, the splatter paintings hold within them a certain freedom and release in the act of painting. Even more significantly, each requires a near total submission to the forces of chance on the part of the artist, as he cannot entirely predict where and how the paint will land. Each mark on the canvas is caught in a double-bind: the instant the paint strikes the surface and the slow aftermath of its messy dripping downwards. Like the splat of a paintball, each circular form traces in time a series of self-contained expressions in space. Whereas Davenport’s drip paintings prevent us from dissecting and dividing their flowing lines into fragmented sections, the splatter paintings represent a punctuation of temporal duration. They are a compression of instants recorded in a manner not dissimilar to the One-Second Drawings that John Latham experimented with during his lifetime. Where Latham’s acts of mark-making were concerned with the ‘Least Event’, or the most minimal mark that takes a surface from state 0 to state 1, Davenport uses the painting as a space where moments accumulate and cluster in a distinct layering of time. John Latham (1921–2006), Noit – One Second Drawing, 1970

In describing her particular version of painterly abstraction, Bridget Riley once said that in each of her works ‘a particular situation is stated. Certain elements within that situation remain constant. Others precipitate the destruction of themselves by themselves.’7 In Davenport’s work, a similar statement is repeatedly made: in using ‘gravity to direct the flow of paint. If I look at a painting that I made twenty-five years ago, it sits quite comfortably with something that I’m doing today.’ The words of both artists crystallise the complex layering of time that is traced through the act of painting, which extends from the self-contained composition of one painting to the continuing return to an idea

Detail of Neon Bang, 2018 (cat. no.10)

throughout one’s artistic career. In Davenport’s case, the question of time is the thing itself; it is the downward cascade of lines in a seemingly continuous duration, the curving passages of accumulated motion on the floor, or the instants of presentness hitting a surface. Each of these temporal actions are made visible through the medium of paint, which Davenport exploits for all of its variety, richness and liquid potential. Through a careful balance of control and chance, which is mapped across the internal mode of the artist’s mind and hand and the exterior unpredictability of his medium, Davenport initiates each situation by pouring, dripping and splattering, but then allows the work to resolve itself – some elements remain constant, others undo themselves in the process. By accessing freedom through these self-imposed constraints, Davenport imbues his work with a lasting temporal energy; it is through the pleasure of looking that this energy is released.

1 Bergson, Henri. Matter and Memory, translated by Nancy Margaret Paul and W. Scott Palmer. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1911, p.246. 2 Wright, Karen. ‘Ian Davenport, painter: ‘The drip is something from everyday. It is quite Duchampian’, The Independent, 14 June 2014 <https://www.independent.co.uk/artsentertainment/art/features/ian-davenportpainter-the-drip-is-something-from-everydayit-is-quite-duchampian-9532752.html> (last accessed: 5 July 2018). 3 Bracewell, Michael. ‘A conversation with Ian Davenport’, October 1999, in Ian Davenport: Large Scale Paintings. London: Waddington Galleries, 2003, p.7. 4 Becker, Daniel Levin. Many Subtle Channels: In Praise of Potential Literature. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2012, p.7.

Detail of Splatter: Yellow, Pink, Blue, 2018 (cat. no.23)

5 Heathfield, Adrian, ‘Thought of Duration’, 2009, in Time (Documents of Contemporary Art), ed. Amelia Groom. London: Whitechapel Gallery, 2013, p.97. 6 Bergson, Henri. Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness, translated by F. L. Pogson. London: Adamant Media Corporation, 2005, pp.12–13. 7 Riley, Bridget. ‘Perception Is the Medium’, 1965, in The Eye’s Mind: Bridget Riley Collected Writings 1965–1999, ed. R. Kudielka. London: Thames and Hudson, 1999, pp.66–68.

Works

1 La Cra, Harvest (After Van Gogh) 2018

2 Olympia 2018

3 Grey Olympia (after Manet) 2018

4 Mirrored Place 2017

5 La Mer Study (After Bonnard) 2018

6 Turquoise Doge 2017

7 Chartwell Park 2018

8 The Harvest Study (After Van Gogh) 2018

9 The Harvest Study 2 (After Van Gogh) 2018

10 Neon Bang 2018

11 Cold Fall 2018

12 White Flare 2018 13 Brocade 2018

14 Blossom 2018

15 Carbon Black Splat 2018

A Blink in the Sun A conversation between Ian and Philip Davenport, July 2018 Philip Davenport When we were children we all sat around the kitchen table, drawing, painting and writing. It was partly a form of crowd control, to stop us arguing. Mum gave us a continuous stream of materials to use – often recycled or reappropriated. We drew on Dad’s engineering blueprints, cereal boxes, old greetings cards, scrapbooks and on graph paper, using pencils, ink, paint, and we’d be surrounded by the smell of cooking. How do you think that impacted on you? Ian Davenport It was a playful environment at home and encouraged us all to be enquiring and curious. This began at such an early age it became second nature and I applied that same approach to my artwork. Even now, I use unconventional materials and everyday objects in paintings, trying to see what I can make them do. ‘Play’ can often lead to fruitful and paradoxically sophisticated results. My work uses a lot of engineering skills and explores the physicality of paint with economy of means, alongside intuition.

take a sideways step, whilst still deeply engaged in the creative process. PD Making those early songs and sound pieces with our sister Finella conjured a complete world, a bubble. John Cage talks about this: when you make art together, you create a micro-society with different rules. I think we all entered that space as kids and keep going back there. The lovely thing about your paintings is that they invite other people in too, they’re very welcoming those big arches, and the waterfalls of colour. But there’s also a troubled side: we lived in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, a civil war, with the continual possibility of unforeseen events happening. Is there a link between where we grew up and your work?

PD Later as kids we all played music – and this continues. What’s the relationship between playing music and playing with paint? ID Music began when Mum and Dad bought me a toy drum, when I was four or five. I’d seen drummers in the marching bands in Northern Ireland and I begged them to buy me a LOUD drum. It disappeared after a couple of days and strangely could not be found anywhere! Many years later I could finally afford my own drum kit. The obvious link is rhythm, but it goes deeper. For me, a painting is composed just like music; I might choose a sequence of colours that are then repeated or reversed in the way a musical refrain metamorphoses through a song. Music helps me problem-solve paintings: being able to Ian Davenport playing the drums in his bedroom, 1981

first two years and then finally moved into the sculpture department, among students experimenting with materials and questioning some of the preconceptions of art. I became a little lost and I was looking for a simple motif to help ground the work. I was surrounded by paint pots in my studio so I began to paint these, allowing paint to drip, mimicking the sides of the pots. Gradually the gestures became looser and I discovered it was the drips, using the materiality of paint, that excited me.

Degree show, Goldsmiths Art College, London, 1988

ID I was very young when we lived in Northern Ireland and although I experienced some of the violence – bomb drills and scares were common place – I didn’t fully understand what it meant. I don’t know if this unconsciously came about because of our childhood but I have often thought about the connection between control and chance and how structures break down. I am intrigued by the balance between creative and destructive forces. I seem to come back to these themes again and again – and the role of chance arbitrating between them. When I was studying at college I often made a painting and then scraped it back or poured liquid over it to destroy the image and release another ‘ghost’ image. At first, this was intuitive and over a period of time I recognised that chasing this ghost was the fascination, the real point. PD How would you construct a narrative for your work? What is the story arc from when you first painted to when you had your first exhibition? ID I submerged myself in drawing and painting at school and I knew to become an artist I had to establish a language for myself. I chose Goldsmiths Art College in London because I thought it was the place most likely to make that happen. At that time, in the 1980s, it was unusual because it blurred disciplines – painting, sculpture, photography. I was excited by the freedom. I worked figuratively for the

My tutor, Michael Craig-Martin, invited his gallerist, Leslie Waddington to my degree show. Leslie bought some paintings and we struck up a relationship which has continued with the gallery over 30 years. Several weeks after I graduated, I took part in a student curated show called Freeze – which is now seen as the moment when the British art establishment changed and a new generation of artists emerged. PD I remember that time vividly, helping you put up the degree show. Michael Craig-Martin came in, took one glance, and told us to rebuild the wall because it distracted from the work. He was a great catalyst. He once looked at some of your work in progress and said, “Yes they’re gorgeous – but where’s the danger?” It’s a good question – how do you keep your work dangerous? ID Often my paintings have a repeated physical motion, or movement, that has become perfected so that the viewer is looking at a very simple poured shape or lines. In fact, the paintings rest on a tipping point, as Michael taught me. I always push them to the place where the process is on the edge of destroying itself. Particularly with the earlier arch paintings, I had to throw away so many attempts and only a few made it through. PD I remember helping you in the studio, watching you watch the paintings, as you decided on their fate. It was always a very zen moment, you’d take a long time, spattered with paint, lingering with a cigarette in your mouth. Then you’d say, “No good!” And I’d think: “Oh fuck, we have to do it all again…”

ID It takes weeks, months, to gradually understand the paintings. I finally lose myself in the process – and at that point I start getting the results I want. There is a power in the subtle difference between one work and another, which looks like simple repetition to the casual viewer. The Stripe Paintings, for which I’m best probably known, have evolved over a long period of time. They started in the early 1990s with just four or five colours built up in layers. Then years later I became interested in Renaissance frescoes and I thought the series could work painted directly on the wall. The colour sequences this demanded were more complex and varied. I made site-specific works for Warwick University and Southwark Street in London, then I wanted to move away from the site-specific back to a studio practice. But along the way, I’d seen how paint collected and puddled at the bottom of the poured lines and thought this would make a very dynamic new feature in the next incarnation of the stripes. I guess what I am describing is how a body of work develops and changes. To allow this to happen, sometimes you instigate change and sometimes change happens to you. Speed is a feature of contemporary life but incremental change does not necessarily fit with it, or the pressures of the art world – but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there, and my paintings register it. PD You’ve talked about your paintings as physical phenomena of light and reflection. Because I use words to construct poems, I sometimes think of light and reflection as things that bring insight…

Ian Davenport, Poured Painting: Blue, Black, Blue, 1999 household oil paint on medium density fibreboard, 243.8 × 548.6 cm /96 × 216 in. Collection Tate Gallery

ID I try to make my work reflect the world, not depict the world. My development as an artist isn’t a straight trajectory. I alternate between different types of paintings, which at times caused problems as my audience struggled to understand why! A studio accident or observation could lead to a series of new paintings. For example, in this exhibition, Colourscapes there is a group of works that came about when I did a workshop with some children. Instead of doing what had been expected the children started squirting paint at the walls of the gallery and themselves! When I got back to the studio I wanted to use that energy and made some Splat works on paper. My paintings wrap many ideas – and feelings too – all together. They hold all of those positions. They’re about living, a fleeting moment – a blink in the sun, not a theory or a technical exercise. I want them to be beautiful, I try to find what that is for me and make it tangible.

Philip Davenport is a poet who often works off the page, making site specific pieces in galleries and streets. His anthology THE DARK WOULD (2013) gathered together world-leading text artists and visual poets. Philip co-directed the mass-collaboration THE HOMELESS LIBRARY (2016) the first ever history of British homelessness, launched at the Houses of Parliament and the Southbank Poetry Library.

Ian and Philip at Goldsmiths Art College, London, 1988

16 Current 2018

17 Flow 2018

18 Glide 2018

19 Black and White Drift 2018

20 Confluence 2018

21 Splatter: Grey and White 2018

22 Splatter: Black and White 2018

23 Splatter: Yellow, Pink, Blue 2018

List of Works 1 La Cra, Harvest (After Van Gogh) 2018 acrylic on aluminium mounted onto aluminium panel (with additional floor section) 114¼ × 78¾ in / 290 × 200 cm 2 Olympia 2018 acrylic on aluminium mounted onto aluminium panel (with additional floor section) 114¼ × 78¾ in / 290 × 200 cm 3 Grey Olympia (after Manet) 2018 acrylic on aluminium mounted on aluminium panel 40 × 40 in / 101.6 × 101.6 cm 4 Mirrored Place 2017 acrylic on stainless steel mounted on aluminium panels (with additional floor section) 118 1⁄8 × 157½ in / 300 × 400 cm 5 La Mer Study (After Bonnard) 2018 acrylic on aluminium mounted onto aluminium panel 40 × 40 in / 101.6 × 101.6 cm 6 Turquoise Doge 2017 acrylic on aluminium mounted on aluminium panel 40 × 40 in / 101.6 × 101.6 cm 7 Chartwell Park 2018 acrylic on aluminium mounted onto aluminium panel 64¼ × 52 in / 163 × 132 cm

8 The Harvest Study (After Van Gogh) 2018 acrylic on aluminium mounted onto aluminium panel 40 × 40 in / 101.6 × 101.6 cm 9 The Harvest Study 2 (After Van Gogh) 2018 acrylic on aluminium mounted onto aluminium panel 40 × 40 in / 101.6 × 101.6 cm 10 Neon Bang 2018 acrylic on paper 47 7⁄8 × 33¾ in / 121.6 × 85.8 cm 11 Blossom 2018 acrylic on paper 60 × 48 in / 152.4 × 121.9 cm 12 White Flare 2018 acrylic on paper 60 × 48 in / 152.4 × 121.9 cm 13 Brocade 2018 acrylic on paper 47 7⁄8 × 33¾ in / 121.6 × 85.8 cm 14 Cold Fall 2018 acrylic on paper 60 × 48 in / 152.4 × 121.9 cm

15 Carbon Black Splat 2018 acrylic on paper 60 1⁄8 × 47 7⁄8 in / 152.7 × 121.5 cm

22 Splatter: Black and White 2018 acrylic on aluminium mounted on aluminium panel 12¼ × 12¼ in / 31 × 31 cm

16 Current 2018 acrylic on aluminium mounted on aluminium panel 20 × 20 in / 50.8 × 50.8 cm

23 Splatter: Yellow, Pink, Blue 2018 acrylic on aluminium mounted on aluminium panel 12¼ × 12¼ in / 31 × 31 cm

17 Flow 2018 acrylic on aluminium mounted on aluminium panel 20 × 20 in / 50.8 × 50.8 cm 18 Glide 2018 acrylic on aluminium mounted on aluminium panel 12¼ × 12¼ in / 31 × 31 cm 19 Black and White Drift 2018 acrylic on aluminium mounted on aluminium panel 12¼ × 12¼ in / 31 × 31 cm 20 Confluence 2018 acrylic on aluminium mounted on aluminium panel 20 × 20 in / 50.8 × 50.8 cm 21 Splatter: Grey and White 2018 acrylic on aluminium mounted on aluminium panel 12¼ × 12¼ in / 31 × 31 cm

Biography 1966 Born 8 July, Sidcup, Greater London 1984–85 Studies at Northwich College of Art and Design, Cheshire 1985–88 Studies at Goldsmiths’ College of Art, London 1991 Nominated for the Turner Prize 1996–97 Commissioned to create a site-specific installation for Banque BNP Paribas in London 1999 Prizewinner John Moores Liverpool Exhibition 21 2000 Prizewinner Premio del Golfo, La Spezia, Italy 2002 Awarded first prize Prospects, Essor Gallery Project Space, London 2003 Makes a wall painting for the Groucho Club, London 2004 Commissioned by the Contemporary Art Society to make a wall painting for the Institute of Mathematics and Statistics at Warwick University, titled ‘Everything’ (2004) Retrospective opens at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham Marries Sue Arrowsmith 2006 ‘Poured Lines: Southwark Street’, a 3 by 48 metre painting commissioned by Southwark Council and Land Securities as part of a regeneration project in Bankside, London, is installed under Western Bridge, Southwark Street, London Commissioned to design a limited edition cover for the September issue of Wallpaper* magazine

2007 Receives commission from The New York Times Magazine to create an American flag with an environmentally friendly theme, along with seven other artists, for their 15th April issue Completes ‘Poured Lines: QUBE Building’, a 2.85 by 15 metre painting commissioned by Derwent London for the QUBE Building, Fitzrovia, London 2010 Commissoned by Wallpaper* magazine to produce a mural with Maya Romanoff, a wallcovering manufacturer, for the Wallpaper* handmade exhibition at Salon del Mobile, Milan, also reproduced in the Wallpaper* Handmade July issue Completes an artist-in-residence programme at The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, Bethany, Connecticut, USA 2012 Commissioned to design an ‘Arty Wenlock’ for the London Olympics by the Mayor of London’s Office, the Greater London Authority, installed on the concourse in between the Millennium Bridge and Tate Modern, for the duration of the Olympic Games 2013 Commissioned by Fabergé and Vistajet to make a design for the tail of one of Vistajet’s flagship aircrafts – the Bombardier Global 6000, in celebration of Spring and Easter 2014 A comprehensive monograph of the artist’s work is published by Thames & Hudson, with texts by Martin Filler, Michael Bracewell and Damien Hirst Commissioned to make large-scale installation ‘Colourcade: HANA 2014’ at the HANA Building, Singapore 2016 Commissioned by Jelmoli Haus, Zurich, to design the store’s temporary facade during renovations Invited to design a bag and accessories for Dior, alongside other British and American artists, launched at Art Basel Miami Commissioned by South London Gallery to make a unique series of hand-painted artist plates with the porcelain manufacturer Meissen

2017 Invited to design the Swatch pavilion for the 57th Venice Biennale, and makes large-scale installation ‘Giardini Colourfall’ (2017) and limited edition watch Wide Acres of Time

Solo Exhibitions

Collaborates with Estée Lauder to develop their Pure Color Envy collection

1992 Galerie Ludwig, Krefeld, Germany Galerie Michael Haas, Berlin Galerie Limmer, Freiburg, Germany Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York

2018 Major survey at Dallas Contemporary, Texas Lives and works in London

1990 Waddington Galleries, London

1993 Waddington Galleries, London 1994 Turner & Byrne Gallery, Dallas, Texas 1996 Ridinghouse Editions, London Waddington Galleries, London 1997 Galerie Limmer, Cologne Galleria Moncada, Rome 1998 Galerie Xippas, Paris 1999 Dundee Contemporary Arts Patrick De Brock Gallery, Knokke, Belgium 2000 Waddington Galleries, London Tate Liverpool 2001 The Box Associati, Turin Galerie Xippas, Paris Slewe Gallery, Amsterdam 2003 Waddington Galleries, London Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh

2004 Ikon Gallery, Birmingham 2005 Slewe Gallery, Amsterdam Galerie Xippas, Paris 2006 Ovals Arches Lines, Alan Cristea Gallery, London 2008 Poured Lines, Waddington Galleries, London Hakgojae Gallery, Seoul Ian Davenport & The Simpsons, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh 2009 Fabstraction, Alan Cristea Gallery, London Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York Puddle Paintings, Waddington Galleries, London 2010 allerArt Bludenz, Austria Slewe Gallery, Amsterdam 2011 Galerie Hopkins, Paris Quick Slow Quick Quick Slow, Waddington Custot Galleries, London Prismatic, Alan Cristea Gallery, London 2012 Between the Lines, Art Plural Gallery, Singapore Galerie Andres Thalmann, Zurich Reflex, Giacomo Guidi Arte Contemporanea, Rome 2013 Colorfall, Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York 2014 Colourfall, Waddington Custot Galleries, London 2015 Pace Prints, New York Dan Galeria, SĂŁo Paulo Galerie Flore, Brussels Melismatic, Galerie Xippas, Geneva 2016 Cadence, Galerie Andres Thalmann, Zurich Galleria Tega, Milan Doubletake, Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York

2017 Melismatic, Alan Cristea Gallery, London Giardini Colourfall, Swatch Pavilion, 57th La Biennale di Venezia, Venice 2017â&#x20AC;&#x201C;18 Cascade, Custot Gallery, Dubai 2018 New Works on Paper, Slewe Gallery, Amsterdam Dallas Contemporary, Texas

Group Exhibitions 1985 Young Contemporaries, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester 1988 Freeze, Surrey Docks, London Ian Davenport, Gary Hume, Michael Landy, Karsten Schubert, London 1989 Current, Swansea Arts Workshop (Old Seamen’s Chapel), Swansea West Norwood 1, West Norwood Railway Arches (7, 8, 9), London 1990 The British Art Show, McLellan Galleries, Glasgow; touring to Leeds City Art Gallery; Hayward Gallery, London Painting Alone, Pace Gallery, New York 1990–91 Carnet de Voyages – 1, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Jouy-en-Josas, France 1991 British Art from 1930, Waddington Galleries, London Metropolis Internationale Kunstausstellung, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin Broken English, Serpentine Gallery, London Ian Davenport, Stephen Ellis, James Nares, Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York Abstraction, Waddington Galleries, London Turner Prize Exhibition, Tate Gallery, London New Displays, Tate Gallery, London Galerie Fahnemann, Berlin 1991–92 Confrontaciones: Arte último británico y español, Palacio de Velázquez, Parque del Retiro, Instituto de la Juventud, Madrid (in collaboration with the British Council) 1992 The Vertical Flatbed Picture Plane – En Valise, Turner & Byrne Gallery, Dallas, Texas Dumb Painting, Centraal Museum, Utrecht L’Attico, Rome Gifts to the Nation: Contemporary Art Society Purchases, Camden Arts Centre, London

1992–97 New Voices: recent paintings from the British Council collection, organised by the British Council, touring to Centre de Conferences Albert Borschette, Brussels; EEC Presidency Exhibition, Brussels; Musée National d’Histoire et d’Art, Luxembourg; Istanbul Greater City Municipality Taksim Art Gallery; State Fine Arts Gallery, Ankara; Izfas Gallery, Izmir, Turkey; Centre d’Art Santa Monica, Barcelona; Museo Bellas Artes de Bilbao, Spain; Centro Cultural Galileo, Madrid; Sala Véronicas, Murcia, Spain; Pescadería Vieja-Sala de Arte, Cádiz, Spain; Kulturhistorisches Museum, Magdeburg, Germany; National Theatre Galleries, Bucharest, Romania; Art Halls of the Cultural Centre of the Municipality of Athens; Cultural Centre for the National Bank of Greece, Thessaloniki; The State Russian Museum, St Petersburg; Nizhnii Novgorod Kremlin, Russia; Mirbach Palace, Bratislava, Slovakia; The House of the Black Madonna, Czech Museum of Fine Arts, Prague; Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje, Macedonia 1994 Here and Now, Serpentine Gallery, London British Abstract Art Part 1: Painting, Flowers East, London Summer 94, Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York British Painting 1988–1994: a selection from stock, Richard Salmon Ltd, London 1995 From Here, Waddington Galleries and Karsten Schubert, London 30 Years of Northern Young Contemporaries, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester 1995–96 Real Art–A New Modernism: British Reflexive Painters in the 1990s, Southampton City Art Gallery; touring to Stedelijk Museum, Aalst, Belgium; Leeds City Art Gallery 1996 Nuevas Abstracciones, Palacio de Velázquez, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; touring to Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany; Museu d’Art Contemporani, Barcelona 50 Jahre Kunst und Museumsverein Wuppertal, Kunsthalle Barmen, Wuppertal-Barmen, Germany British Abstract Art Part 3: Works on Paper, Flowers East, London 1996–97 Ace! Arts Council Collection new purchases, South Bank Centre exhibition touring to Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne; Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston; Oldham Art Gallery, Greater Manchester; Hayward Gallery, London; Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield; Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham; Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast; Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol

1996–98 About Vision: New British Painting in the 1990s, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford; touring to The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh; Wolsey Art Gallery, Ipswich; Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne 1997 Treasure Island, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon Ian Davenport, Michael Craig-Martin, Zebedee Jones, Michael Landy and Fiona Rae, Waddington Galleries, London Finish, Spacex Gallery, Exeter 1998 Elegant Austerity, Waddington Galleries, London Up to 2000, Southampton City Art Gallery Roberto Caracciolo, Ian Davenport, Galleria Moncada, Rome 1999 Examining Pictures, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London; touring to Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Armand Hammer Museum, Los Angeles A Line in Painting, Gallery Fine, London John Moores Liverpool 21, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool Now Showing II, Houldsworth Fine Art, London 21 Years of Spacex, Spacex Gallery, Exeter 2000 Surface, An Tuireann, Isle of Skye, Scotland Fact & Value, Charlottenborg Udstillingsbygning, Copenhagen, Denmark Profiles of Young European Painting, Premio del Golfo, La Spezia, Italy 2001 Complementary Studies: Recent Abstract Painting, Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston British Abstract Painting 2001, Flowers East, London Jerwood Painting Prize, Jerwood Gallery, London; touring to Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow UBS Warburg Exhibition, UBS Warburg at Planit Arches, London 2002 In the Freud Museum, Freud Museum, London Prospects 2002 Contemporary Drawing Exhibition, Essor Gallery Project Space, London Super-Abstr-Action 2, Galleria No Code, Bologna Inheriting Matisse: The Decorative Contour in Contemporary Art, Rocket Gallery, London Peintures – contrainte ou recette, Galerie du Cloître, Rennes (organised by L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Rennes) Slewe Gallery, Amsterdam

Abstraction, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh John Moores 22, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (part of the Liverpool Biennial 2002) Jerwood Drawing Prize, University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham; touring to other UK venues including Jerwood Space, London Berlin/London/Minimal, Galerie Markus Richter, Berlin New Commissions, Alan Cristea Gallery, London Colour–A Life of Its Own, Mücsarnok, Kunsthalle Budapest, Hungary 2003 Days Like These: Tate Triennial of Contemporary British Art, Tate Britain, London Blanc en Blanc, Galerie Xippas, Paris Exodus: between promise and fulfilment, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge Circular, Rocket Gallery, London Prints Published by the Alan Cristea Gallery, Alan Cristea Gallery, London On, Xippas Gallery, Athens 2004 Painting as Process: Re-evaluating Painting, Earl Lu Gallery, LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts, Singapore Other Times: Contemporary British Art, City Gallery, Prague (in association with the British Council) Post Impact, Galleri Xippas, Athens John Moores 23, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool 2005 Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow, Blue?, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh Minimalism and After IV, DaimlerChrysler Contemporary, Berlin Painting: London, Galleria Holly Snapp, Venice Ian Davenport, Kaoru Tsunoda, Rachmaninoff ’s, London Elements of Abstraction, Southampton City Art Gallery 2006 Passion for Paint, National Gallery, London; Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery; Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle Artists + Alchemists, Sherborne House, Sherborne, Dorset Compilation 2, Rocket Gallery, London How to Improve the World: British Art 1946–2006, Arts Council Collection, Hayward Gallery, London Concrete Matters, Nieuwe Vide Gallery, Haarlem, The Netherlands Thread, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh Abstract Painting and the University of Warwick Art Collection, Mead Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre, Warwick Monochromed, The Fine Art Society, London Edition, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London “The hardest thing to draw is a kiss.” Wimbledon School of Art, London Compilation 3, Rocket Gallery, London

2006–7 You’ll Never Know: Drawing and Random Interference, organised by the Hayward Gallery, Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston; touring to Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea; Lowry, Salford; New Art Gallery, Walsall; Tullie House Museum, Carlisle 2006–8 Drawing Breath, The Jerwood Drawing Prize–Special Exhibition, Wimbledon College of Art, London 2007 Painting in the Noughties, Regional Cultural Arts Centre, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal The Jerwood Drawing Prize 2007, Jerwood Space, London Turner Prize: A Retrospective 1984–2006, Tate Britain, London New Space New Work, Alan Cristea Gallery, London Between the Lines, Gallery Hakgojae, Seoul, Korea A Summer Selection, Crane Kalman Gallery, London Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London 2008 Blitzkrieg Bop, Man&Eve Gallery, London 20 at The Hospital Club, The Hospital Club Gallery, London Weight Watchers, Galerie Xippas, Paris New Gallery Editions, Alan Cristea Gallery, London Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London New Contemporary Art Displays, Tate Britain, London Cover Versions, Ermenegildo Zegna, Milan (organised by Wallpaper* magazine) 2009 Contemporary Prints: Including Lichtenstein, Davenport, Opie, Alan Cristea Gallery, London Northern Print Biennale, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne Setting the Pattern, Koraalberg Contemporary Art, Antwerp Ian Davenport Michael Craig-Martin Julian Opie: Múltiple, Galeria Estiarte, Madrid 2010 The Future Demands Your Participation: Contemporary Art from the British Council Collection, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai Pictures on Pictures: Discursive Painting from Albers to Zobernig from the Daimler Art Collection, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna Ian Davenport, Mark Francis, Peter Halley and Dan Walsh: Abstract Vision Now, Art + Art Gallery, Moscow Derek Jarman Building, University of Kent, Canterbury Art–curated by Michael Craig-Martin, Haas and Fuchs, Berlin Save Us, Macclesfield Visual Arts Festival John Moores Prize Paintings in Korea, Seongnam Art Centre, Korea Abstraction and Structure, with paintings by Ian Davenport, Katharina Grosse, Joanne Greenbaum, Frank Nitsche, Albrecht

Schnider, Esther Stocker, Bernhard Knaus Fine Art, Frankfurt Paintings in Hospitals: Colouring in the Clinical, Menier Gallery, London Eleven, Alan Cristea Gallery, London Summer Exhibition, Alan Cristea Gallery, London Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London Process/Abstraction, Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York CREAM (Damien Hirst & Contemporaries), KIASMA, Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki FAST FORWARD British Contemporary Art in Brazil, Espaço David Ford – Brazilian British Centre Galleries, Pinheiros, Brazil 2010–11 John Moores Contemporary Painting Prize 2010 Exhibition, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool 2011 Why Patterns?, Slewe Gallery, Amsterdam I Promise to Love You: Caldic Collection, Kunsthal Rotterdam Lineage, Edinburgh Printmakers, Edinburgh Gravity’s Rainbow, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London 2011–12 Editions & Acquisitions, Alan Cristea Gallery, London UK and US Contemporary Artists, Galeria Pilar Serra, Madrid 2012 Means Without Ends, Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London Sweethearts, Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London The Materiality of Paint, The Fine Art Society, London Duchamp and Cage: 100 Years Later, The Aldeburgh Beach Lookout, Suffolk PiH Contemporaries 2012, Bonhams, London 2012–13 Route 66: Ian Davenport/Alberto Di Fabio, Luca Tommasi Arte Contemporanea, Monza, Italy 2013 Thirteen, Alan Cristea Gallery, London Linear Abstraction, Alan Cristea Gallery, London Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London Once upon a time and what a very good time it was…, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh 2013–14 Hidden in Plain Sight: British Abstract Art from the Collection, Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery

2014 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London 2015 Right Now!, Mission Gallery, Swansea British Artists, Galerie Andres Thalmann, Zurich Black Paintings, Charlie Smith, London 2016 Seeing Round Corners, Turner Contemporary, Margate The World Meets Here, Custot Gallery Dubai Pearls, The Bruce High Quality Foundation, Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London 2017 Colour Is, Waddington Custot, London 2018 Scorribanda, Galleria Nazionale Arte Moderna, Rome Line, Form and Colour – Works from the Berardo Collection, Museu Coleçao Berardo, Lisbon

Selected Public Collections Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London Birmingham Museums Trust Borusan Contemporary Art Collection, Istanbul British Council Collection Centre for Modern and Contemporary Art, La Spezia, Italy Centre Pompidou, Paris Contemporary Art Society, London Dallas Museum of Art, Texas FNAC Fonds National d’art contemporain, Puteaux, France UK Government Art Collection, London Jerwood Gallery, Hastings National Museum Wales, National Museum Cardiff Nuffield College, Oxford University Paintings in Hospitals, UK Plymouth City Council, Museum and Art Gallery Southampton City Art Gallery Tate, London Unilever, London University of Kent, Canterbury Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal, Germany Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester

Giardini Colourfall at the Swatch Pavilion, 57th Venice Biennale, 2017

Ian Davenport would like to thank Philip Davenport, Joseph Constable, Herman Lelie, Stefania Bonelli, Peter Lamb, Rebecca Guez, Hannah Tilson, Billy Crosby and Fraser Sharp. Everyone at Waddington Custot; Stephane Custot, JF Cecillon, Michelle Gower, Ben Ravenscroft and Jessica Ramsay. As ever, a very special thank you to Sue Arrowsmith.

This book was published on the occasion of the exhibition

Ian Davenport Colourscapes 20 September–8 November 2018 Waddington Custot 11 Cork Street London W1S 3LT T. +44 20 7851 2200 waddingtoncustot.com Monday to Friday 10am–6pm Saturday 10am–4pm Designed by Herman Lelie Layouts by Stefania Bonelli Image Credits Artwork photography, Antony Makinson for Prudence Cuming Associates, London, and Rebecca Guez and Hannah Tilson for Ian Davenport Studio. p.8: Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890), The Harvest, Arles, June 1888, oil on canvas, 36.14 in × 28.89/73.4 × 91.8 cm, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation), s30V1962, F412 p.8: Paul Cézanne (1839–1906), Forest Interior, ca. 1898–1899, oil on canvas, 32 in × 24/61 × 81.3 cm; Frame: 35 × 43 × 3¾ in/88.9 × 109.2 × 9.5 cm Museum purchase, Mildred Anna Williams Collection, 1977.4 p.10: John Latham (1921–2006), Noit – One Second Drawing, 1970, ink on paint and board, 12¾ × 9¾ in/32.5 × 24.7 cm © The John Latham Foundation; Courtesy the John Latham Foundation and Lisson Gallery. Photography Ken Adlard p.45: Jooney Woodward pp.50, 51: Yvonne Burke All artwork © Ian Davenport, 2018 © Waddington Custot, London, 2018 Published by Waddington Custot Co-ordinated by Jessica Ramsay ISBN978-1-9164568-0-8