1955–1965

Hélio Oiticica, B17 Glass Bólide 05 ‘Homage to Mondrian’  1965

In the mid-1960s Oiticica began to make the Bólides (or Fireballs), sculptural objects aimed at exploring the structure of colour. The Glass Bólides were a distinct group, consisting of large glass jars or containers. Here, colour in the form of pigment is dissolved in water and is also applied to coarse fabric, showing Oiticica’s interest in exploring the physical properties of colour. The dedication to Piet Mondrian, known for his abstract-geometric paintings in primary colours, acknowledges his influence on Oiticica but its use here for a dramatically contrasting work stresses Oiticica’s own unique development.

Gallery label, April 2009

Stuart Brisley, Untitled  c.1960

This painting is typical of the few surviving by Brisley from this period where a patchwork of materials – predominantly sand, tar and fragments of clothing or sacking material – extend across the work’s surface. It has been hit by hammers, and the resulting ‘wounds’ reveal a layering to the work. Where some of Brisley’s paintings of this period suggest figurative imagery, this is abstract; its subject and process being the urban materials deployed and manipulated by the artist.

Gallery label, September 2016

Takis, Télélumière Relief No. 5  1963–5

Bruce Lacey, Boy, Oh Boy, am I Living!  1964

Raphael Montañez Ortiz, Duncan Terrace Piano Destruction Concert: The Landesmans’ Homage to “Spring can really hang you up the most”  1966

Duncan Terrace Piano Destruction Concert: The Landesmans’ Homage to “Spring can really hang you up the most” 1966 is a sculpture that resulted from a piano destruction concert that took place at the London home of the writer Jay Landesman and his wife the composer Fran Landesman on 10 October 1966. The happening, by the American artist Raphael Montañez Ortiz, took place following Landemans’s invitation. It formed part of the Destruction In Art Symposium (DIAS) held in London from 31 August to 30 September 1966, organised by Gustav Metzger and John Sharkey, which had brought Ortiz to London. The context of the symposium encouraged the artist to extend his practice from the studio and into the creation of sculptures as the end result of performances, a pivotal development in his practice. The work consists of the partially destroyed back frame and harp of an upright piano with some of its broken wires still attached. The frame has been turned ninety degrees to take on a portrait format and is displayed attached to the wall; some elements of the broken piano frame were glued and re-consolidated by the artist following the event.

David Medalla, Sand Machine Bahag - Hari Trance #1  1963–2015

Sand Machine Bahag – Hari Trance #1 is a kinetic sculpture originally conceived by David Medalla in 1963 and refabricated under his authority in 2015. Presented on a white plinth, the artwork takes the form of a shallow metal tray of sand, from the centre of which a small section of silver birch tree protrudes vertically. Atop this is a square pane of glass, from the corners of which are suspended two lengths of bamboo cane. The ends of the bamboo are connected by a length of copper wire threaded with brightly coloured, ornate glass beads. A rotating mechanism concealed in the length of birch creates a slowly turning motion by which the beads create a circular ‘calligraphic’ impression in the sand; a trace which is continuously renewed in each thirty-second rotation. The apparent precariousness of the work’s construction is in keeping with the artist’s ongoing questioning of the generalisation that sculpture must be monumental, static and timeless.

Takis, Yellow Electron  1966

Liliane Lijn, Time is Change  1964–5

Time is Change 1964–5 consists of a white truncated cone affixed to a motorised turntable that is usually sunk into a plinth. When the work is activated, the cone rotates and appears to be floating above the plinth. It was made from one of a small number of cork cones that were found by Lijn’s partner, the sculptor Takis (born 1925), and given to her. The cone is inscribed with two-toned blue Letraset text written by Lijn. It reads: ‘TIME / IS / CHANGE/ WHENEVER WHEREVER / WHENEVER WHEREVER / WHENEVER WHEREVER / MATTER / FROZEN / LIGHT.’ When the cone rotates, the central bands of repeated words appear to mutate subliminally so that ‘whenever’ reads as ‘never’ and ‘wherever’ as ‘here’.

John Latham, Belief System  1959

Belief System is a wall-mounted assemblage collaged onto a painted canvas. Its main feature is a group of books and disparate metal elements embedded in plaster that was poured onto the canvas when it was in a horizontal position. Latham sprayed this composite cluster with black paint, unifying it and making it stand out from the white background. Two pairs of antique books stand face to face, their pages interleaved, blending them into single objects. The hard leather covers of the lower pair touch at the edges, resulting in an object which appears square and enclosed when seen hanging in the vertical position. The covers of the other pair of books, which is in a configuration at right angles to the first pair, are held open. Those of the lower book are folded right back revealing ripped paper and a title page bearing the words ‘The Parisians’ on one side. On the other, partially visible, a nineteenth century engraving shows a woman sitting on a grassy bank with a man at her feet. Smaller books are stuck to the covers of the four bigger books in varying positions. All the books are warped and deformed by burning and spraying. Such fragments of metal implements as a tin opener, a spring, a coil of wire, a small light bulb, sections of wire gauze, a comb and a long screw are attached to the book covers or lie in the plaster on the canvas. On the left side of the painting a length of cable, painted silver, extends out of a hole down towards the congealed assemblage into which it disappears. It is balanced in the composition by a wavy length of wire describing an arc on the right of the group of books. At the top of the canvas a solitary book is held in place with more plaster, sprayed black and silver at the base where it is wrapped with a length of wire gauze.