British abstraction at the Courtauld

Twentieth-Century

British Art

This display presents a selection of works from The Courtauld's holdings of twentieth-century British art together with a number of major paintings that have recently joined the collection as long-term loans. The works range from the early years of the century, through two world wars, and into the 1960s and 1970s. The diversity of styles and approaches reflects the great changes and upheavals that characterise twentieth-century culture in Britain and this period of modern history more broadly.

Several of the artists shown here were concerned with finding new ways of expressing the experience of particular places that resonated strongly with them. The paintings of London building sites by Leon Kossoff and Frank Auerbach are powerful testaments to the devastation and reconstruction of life and art in the city after the Second World War. Whereas they were drawn to the elemental forces at work as London was excavated and rebuilt, Peter Lanyon immersed himself in the primal drama of the wild landscape of his native Cornwall. He developed a new type of landscape painting that pushed the limits of representation to an extreme in order to express the intensity of his experience.

Still life is the other theme that features strongly in this display. Although painting objects arranged on a table might seem limited in scope, still life was turned into a radical subject matter in the modern period.

Matthew Smith's painting of flowers from the beginning of the century challenged conventional rules of representational art by presenting a scene bursting with colour and energy. With his large still life from the 1970s, William Scott moved the genre towards the realm of abstraction, distilling only the essential elements of his composition.

Ivon Hitchens (1893-1979)

Balcony View, Iping Church

1943

Oil paint on canvas

After his London home was bombed during the Blitz in 1940, Ivon Hitchens moved to West Sussex where he painted this view looking towards ping Church from the balcony of a house. The open door divides the picture vertically; on one side, the sky is dark and threatening, whereas the brightly coloured scene behind the glass door offers a contrasting mood. The vase of poppies - a poignant symbol of remembrance from the First World War - strikes a mournful note, reminding us that the picture was painted at the height of the Second World War.

William Scott (1913-1989)

Recent Orange Note

1973

Oil paint on canvas

The genre of still life was central to William Scott's art throughout his career. At first glance, this work appears to be an abstract composition, but it is rooted in real objects that Scott painted often, arranged on a table top. The form on the left is based on a pan with a long handle while those on the right evoke plates, bowls and cups. This painting marks a new direction in Scott's work when, in the early 1970s, he began distilling the forms of his objects to create harmonies of shape and colour that invite contemplation.

Peter Lanyon (1918-1964)

Halsetown

1961

Oil paint on canvas

This painting is rooted in Peter Lanyon's experience of the landscape of his native Cornwall. Halsetown is a village near St Ives on the rugged peninsular of West Cornwall, an area he painted often. Far from depicting a conventional view, Lanyon conveys the rush of sensations of moving through the landscape, with the colours of land, sea and sky animated by his lively brushwork. The painting was based on Lanyon's observations of repeatedly walking and driving through the countryside.

He also learned to fly gliders so he could experience the landscape from the air.

Peter Lanyon (1918-1964)

Eagle Pass

1963

Oil paint on canvas

In March 1963, Peter Lanyon took a weekend road trip from San Antonio, Texas, where he had a short teaching residency. One of the places he visited was Eagle Pass, Maverick County, on the border with Mexico. This painting was made a few months later, after he had returned to his studio in Cornwall.

The dominant red and yellow forms were likely based on his memories of the buildings and structures he saw visiting Eagle Pass. The greens and blues are an evocation of the sky and surrounding landscape of the banks of the Rio Grande river.

Graham Sutherland (1903-1980)

Study for The Origins of the Land

1950

Gouache, pencil and crayon on paper

This is a study for a large painting commissioned for the Festival of Britain, which was staged on London's South Bank in 1951.

The work formed part of a pavilion telling the story of Britain's land, past and present. The study shows Graham Sutherland creating a cross-section of the earth's crust, like an exposed cliff face layered with accumulated earth, rock and fossils, vibrantly coloured and full of energy. The very narrow strip at the top is the earth's surface with the sun a swirl in the sky.

Leon Kossoff (1926-2019)

Shell Building Site

1962

Oil paint on board

Leon Kossoff drew and painted the bomb sites and building sites of London extensively after the Second World War.

This remarkable painting depicts the massive construction works undertaken on London's South Bank to replace the pavilions of the 1951 Festival of Britain with one of the city's first skyscrapers, built for the Shell oil company.

Kossoff's painting is a vision of volcanic eruption as the new structures wrestle their way out of the deeply excavated earth. His vigorous working of the thick paint gives a palpable sense of creative energy.

Frank Auerbach (born 1931)

Rebuilding the Empire Cinema, Leicester Square

1962

Oil paint on board

Frank Auerbach made a group of paintings of building sites across London as the city was being rebuilt following the devastation of the Second World War.

He reworked this painting over many months, the paint accruing to an extraordinary thickness in places. Beams span the plunging depths revealed by the broken floor levels, and forms emerge within the encrusted paint. Auerbach uses the red lines of the beams to structure the frenetic scene of demolition and construction he observed as the Empire Cinema was gutted and rebuilt.

David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Zahara

1954

Oil paint on board

In his later years, David Bomberg became immersed in painting the landscape of Southern Spain.

He created a dazzling group of expressive paintings, such as this work - a dramatic view of the mountain town of Zahara.

Bomberg renders the sun's searing heat in fiery reds and yellows. The forms of the buildings only just maintain definition amidst the fierce energy of his brushwork. Bomberg taught at the Borough Polytechnic in London during the 1950s and was an inspirational teacher for the artists Leon Kossoff and Frank Auerbach, whose works are displayed nearby.

Patrick Heron (1920-1999)

Red and Grey Still Life with Balcony Window

1950

Oil paint on canvas

Through his paintings and his writings,

Patrick Heron was an influential champion of modern art in Britain after the Second World War.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he produced paintings that reflected his deep admiration for the work of two leading figures of modernism, Paul Cézanne and Georges Braque. This ambitious still life is inspired by their example but achieves a pitch of vibrant colour and flowing movement that is distinctively Heron's own.

Over the following years, Heron developed these qualities into an innovative style of abstract painting.

Patrick Heron (1920-1999)

Still Life

Around 1948-49

Oil paint on canvas

Patrick Heron was one of Britain's leading abstract painters from the 1950s onwards.

In this early still life, he explores the boundaries between abstraction and representation.

He depicts objects, including an oil lamp and mirror, as simplified outlines against the bold hues of the wall and window. Lines and colours appear to have a life of their own, beyond their purely representational function. Heron's approach at this time aligned him with major modern painters such as Henri Matisse and Georges Braque.

Matthew Smith (1879-1959)

Lilies in a Jar

1914

Oil paint on canvas

Matthew Smith spent several formative years studying and painting in France, including with Henri Matisse in Paris. Matisse encouraged Smith to paint in a more intense and liberated way. This still life is a bold display of his newly energised approach and is anything but 'still' with its strong sense of movement and vibrant colours. Smith said he was not aiming for a conventional representation but wanted to "create something as living as nature, so that it itself may continue to live".

Walter Sickert (1860-1942)

Gaîté-Montparnasse:

Last Balcony on the Right

1907

Oil paint on canvas

Since the 1880s, Walter Sickert had painted the music halls and popular theatres of London and Paris. He loved the sights and sounds of these venues, often depicting unusual 'snapshot' views of their gaudy auditoriums. In this painting of a Parisian music hall, he focuses on the dramatically curving balcony and gilded wall decoration. A woman leans out, her face and the programme in her hand catching the light.

Sickert manages to convey specific details, mood and atmosphere using broad dashes of paint. He made a second painting (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) depicting the left-hand balcony; they are mirror images of each other.

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