Lines for Agnes: 9 Contemporary Painters

Lines for Agnes Julia Ball Gemma Cossey Terry Greene Sue Kennington Rebecca Lowe Jason Miller Ruth Philo Marion Piper & Hanna ten Doornkaat

Curated by Ruth Philo & Terry Greene

© The copyright of the following images remains with the artists Designed and edited by Ruth Philo & Terry Greene All rights reserved

This publication accompanies the exhibition Lines for Agnes, curated by Ruth Philo and Terry Greene, showing the work of 9 contemporary painters: Julia Ball, Gemma Cossey, Terry Greene, Sue Kennington, Rebecca Lowe, Jason Miller, Ruth Philo, Marion Piper & Hanna ten Doornkaat, at the Crypt, St Marylebone Parish Church, 17 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LT from 1 September to 31 October 2015.

With thanks to Contemporary British Painting, Robert Priseman, Simon Carter, Simon Burton and the committee for all their support in putting on this exhibition and thanks also to all the artists involved.

‘Art is the concrete representation of our most subtle feelings’ Agnes Martin

Line, colour, plane, surface, space, ground and paint remain the elements available to abstract painters in the 21st century. In this show 9 contemporary painters explore current processes and concerns in abstract painting whilst acknowledging an invisible yet tangible line to the painter Agnes Martin, who died in 2004. Some use metaphysical aspects of painting to make visual continuing ideas connected with beauty, nothingness, solitude & temporality, whereas others adopt different methodologies or purely material processes. This exhibition brings together a variety of approaches within the formal constraints of abstraction, opening up a dialogue not only with Martin’s work but also between each other’s work within the space of the Crypt St Marylebone and the frame of the viewer.

This exhibition was planned in 2014 before knowing anything of the current Agnes Martin retrospective at Tate Modern. It is therefore an unexpected pleasure to have the paintings here on show at the same time as that exhibition so that individual connections can be explored.

Ruth Philo August 2015

Off the Grid Recently, whilst stumbling around on the internet, I discovered that there is a new computer program, one that attempts to tease out any influences upon an artist. The program analyses the artist's use of space, form, shape, colour, and perhaps a myriad other factors, whilst deducing the painting’s genre (Classical, Expressionist or Realist, for example). However, in my experience, often it is surprising to learn of one artist's enthusiasms for another, and rarely self-­‐ evident within their work. Why one artist likes the work of another can be a difficult thing to account for. Influence takes many forms and doesn't necessarily manifest itself in the direct look of a work; it can hover in the background – what not to paint or sculpt for example; it can feed a resolve in attitude; it can determine choice.

'Lines for Agnes' gathers together nine contemporary painters, mostly based in Britain (one lives in Italy), for an exhibition related to Agnes Martin and her work. It's not unusual for Martin to be cited as an inspiration by younger artists; Eva Hesse and Ellen Gallagher for example both identified her as such. Martin herself was more circumspect around the idea of influence, stating that ‘while you go along with others, you are not really living your life.’ She did however praise Mark Rothko for having ‘reached zero so that nothing could stand in the way of truth.’

And, perhaps, following Rothko's example (and possibly that of her friends Barnett Newman and Ad Reinhardt) Martin pared her work down to the most reductive elements, with an emphasis upon line, grids, and fields of subtle colour.

‘The Minimalists are idealist. They want to minimize themselves in favor of the ideal ... But I just can't. You see, my paintings are not cool.’ A M 50 years ago, when Martin developed her signature style, Modernism was still leading the way.

Painting was on a path away from pictorial depth and complexity and towards flatness -­‐ purged of all metaphor, equality of parts, repetition and neutral surfaces. Minimalism and Formalism gave us the all-­‐over monochrome, the stripe and the grid painting. These were standardised forms, defined by their neutrality, anonymity and a subduing of gesture -­‐ which, in Martin's hands, was continually and subtly undermined. By retaining small flaws and traces of the artist's hand, we can see that she combined the geometry of Minimalism and something of the expressivity of abstract painting -­‐ which could still offer new possibilities within contemporary painting. Her use of colour (which seems to bleed, waver and tremble) and the fragile materiality of her surfaces, along with the traces of her touch, would now appear to make the images more sympathetic to younger artists.

Martin's statements, her intense desire for solitude, her paintings and writings, the sense of self-­‐analysis and reflection and her imperfect grids, have variously been identified as inspiring to each of the artists in Lines for Agnes. However for some the relationship to their work is

tangential. The aim of the exhibition is not to illustrate direct influences or particular references to Martin in the selected works, but rather to set up ‘conversations’ between her work and that of contemporary British painters, addressing themes that have become central within contemporary painting practice, including touch, materiality, the recording of the passing of time, and painting as process.

Each one of the artists in this exhibition is represented by one or two modestly sized paintings.

A partial list of the features associated with those paintings might include: openness and sense of play and discovery; a lightness of touch; an encounter with incident and accident. They are abstract, non objective, geometric; incorporating grids, lines, forms and coloured surfaces. It would be inaccurate to describe the work as connected by one essential common feature, but rather they are connected by a series of overlapping similarities, where no one single feature is common to all.

During the initial discussion for the show the nine artists each provided a short written text, each discussing and identifying their own points of reference to Martin and her practice. It's perhaps no surprise that within these writings we once more are able to discern, as in the work itself, further instances of convergence and an interrelatedness through a series of overlapping commonalities: 'I am interested in scale and the experience of seeing work at different distances; the parts and the whole, a calm minimalism of a distant view and something quite different when the work is experienced at close hand.' (Gemma Cossey) 'Wonder, mystery, honesty, transparency, and an active searching, these are the qualities I look for through my own drawing and painting practice. A playful ranging across surfaces; the emergence of images that shift in and out of focus. My work begins with a tactile relationship to the support, I choose the materials for their loading and colour for its operation. I hold on lightly to the grid, a net that catches thoughts and references, a patterning from the world.'

(Marion Piper) 'The complex layering of grid and patchwork motifs create a tense interplay between intuitive, subjective responses to colour, space, texture and process.' (Hanna ten Doornkaat) 'In my paintings I aim, through colour to balance the visual with my own sensations of a particular moment.' (Julia Ball) 'Something of the self is given over in the rituals of painting also. The light emerges. The colours move the inside world closer to the joy of living and some of the difficult questions have been answered in the moment.' (Jason Miller)

'I empathise with Ms Martin’s distrust of the ego and the damage it can cause to the work … and believe the world to be an infinitely complex mix of ego and Zen and all things in between. I do know that for the work to succeed, the inspiration has to be visible in the work -­‐ however that might manifest itself.' (Sue Kennington) 'I often work from objects and surfaces that carry visible records of touch. In Agnes Martin's work the delicately drawn grids, their potential for containment and expansion beyond the physical edges of the painting, are fragile traces of human touch.' (Rebecca Lowe) 'Grids disappear perhaps to be excavated once more ... not the 'gridded vistas of sublime infinities' but … an armature upon which intuitive or subjective enquiry can push against.' (Terry Greene) 'A sensuous material aesthetic, focusing on colour, luminosity and the treatment of the painting surface, through a dialogue with process … my paintings are memories of felt moments of being in the world, combining inner and outer elements.' (Ruth Philo) (All excerpts reproduced by kind permission of the artists)

‘The value of art is in the observer.’ A M For any deeper, or more encompassing experience of the work within Lines for Agnes, It's perhaps important to remind ourselves that the 'themed group show' places the individual paintings, temporarily, in a new conversation and context. Although there can be a crucial gap between the artists' original intentions and the context of a curatorial theme, with its specific remit, the two are not irreconcilable. A show's title points in only one direction -­‐ and we should always be aware of not making the mistake of solely equating that with the artists' original intentions (after all making a work of art, is a process of inquiry during which an artist makes a series of decisions that can lead in various directions). Lines for Agnes is not intended to be a didactically themed show explicitly espousing a curator's argument -­‐ rather it's one small step towards emphasizing the contemporary aesthetic validity of the work of Martin (should it indeed require it). It's not for these artists to naively mimic Martin's work, but perhaps rather to imitate her virtues.

Terry Greene July 2015

Julia Ball Fen I Oil on canvas

Julia Ball was born in Devon. She trained as a printmaker at the School of Art, Reading University. Since 1963, she has lived and worked in Cambridge at Cambridge School of Art, now Anglia Ruskin University, exhibiting regularly throughout the region. Printmaking and its strong sense of design gave Julia a great insight into using colour, overlapping it and being economical with it. Her paintings, now largely in oils, are still built up with many fine layers to capture changing light and colour. Her inspiration is the East Anglian landscape, but also the Scottish Islands and Cornwall, and within it the light, water, the seasons, the time of day and the plants. Her paintings abstract a response to place. Colour is the triumph, exciting and changing, but there is also a sense of space, calm and order, which captivates and haunts.

Gemma Cossey H9 (Kintsukuroi) 2015 Acrylic gesso, acrylic and water-­‐based pigment paint on canvas

Based in London and originally from Somerset, Gemma Cossey has also lived and practised in France, Spain and the Galapagos Islands. Since an MA European Arts & Cultures: Fine Art, from De Montfort University, Granada University in Spain and Fontys Academy in the Netherlands, Gemma has exhibited in the UK and abroad. Recent exhibitions include Autocatalytic Future Games organised by playpaint in Woolwich, Drawn 2015 in Bristol, Creekside Open 2013 (selected by Paul Noble), Motorcade/FlashParade Open 2012 and the Sluice_ exhibition and auction in 2014 and 2012. In 2013 Gemma took part in Pistols & Pollinators II, a 3-­‐month collaborative project between artists and poets, curated by Accident & Emergence and in April 2014 she undertook a residency at Can Serrat in Catalunya.

Terry Greene Apart k 2015 Acrylic on canvas

Born in the East End of London, Terry Greene is a painter now living and working in West Yorkshire. His B.A. in Art & Design was received from Bradford College. Subsequent to that he received his M.A. in Theory of Practice from Leeds Metropolitan University. Greene is engaged in an exploration of the duality of paint; as structure (the historically located medium of high art) and as agency (in its natural fluid state).

Greene’s work can be found in a number of private art collections both in the UK and abroad, and has been seen in numerous exhibitions, including the recent INFINITY : ONE, dalla Rosa Gallery, London; About Painting, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester; Painted Thought, ArcadeCardiff, Cardiff. Greene authors the online Blog: 'Just another painter'.

Sue Kennington Little Vespa Oil on linen

Sue Kennington is a London born painter whose work explores how colour can be used as a visual language, embedding it into personal systems that allude to geometry. The overlapping planes and quality of light in the paintings are connected to Kennington’s experience of place, both in her current location and that remembered, a constant theme of absence and presence represented abstractly. She works between a remote area of central Italy and inner London, finding these extremes essential to the generation of her work.

Kennington received her MFA from Goldsmiths College, London in 2002, and her BA in Fine Art specializing in painting from Chelsea in 1994. In 1996 her work featured in ‘Newcontemporaries’ at Tate Liverpool and the Camden Arts Centre, London.

Recent exhibitions include: ‘Sue Kennington’ at Magazzini dell’Arte Contemporanea in Sicily, ‘Contemporary British Abstraction’ at Container Gallery, London, ‘Colour and Otherness’ at Grace Teshima Gallery in Paris and ‘Eye and Mind’ at Mercus Barn in South East France. This coming autumn, she will be Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome, and showing work at the 6th International Biennale in Beijing.

Rebecca Lowe Shift 2009 Oil on gesso on panel

Shift 2 2015 Oil on gesso on panel

Since graduating from Leeds Metropolitan University with a BA (Hons) Fine Art in 1999 and MA Fine Art in 2000, Rebecca has exhibited throughout the UK and in France and Spain. Her reductive paintings and drawings explore surface, space, light, edge and touch in response to the natural environment, especially in her native Yorkshire, and to hand-­‐made historical objects such as Chinese and Korean pottery. She works part-­‐time at Leeds College of Art where she is responsible for the library's special collection of artists' books and, since 2008, she has curated and collaborated on a series of exhibitions, interventions and creative projects involving the collection.

Solo exhibition: 2012 Intervals, The Bowery, Headingley Group exhibitions: 2014 -­‐ 2015 From Sea to You / Del Mar Para Ti (part of Curio-­‐sea-­‐ty, curated by Hondartza Fraga and Lorna Barrowclough) East Street Arts, Patrick Studios, Leeds and Poca Gallery, Portugalete, Spain 2014 Same but Different, Temple Newsam, Leeds 2011 1m x 1m, The Bowery, Headingley (short-­‐listed, competition)2010 Open Drawing Exhibition, Gallery 12A, Doncaster 2009 Drawn In, Sidcot Arts Centre, Winscombe, North Somerset

Jason Miller The moment it becomes clear 2014 Acrylic on canvas

Jason Miller lives and works in Dorset as a painter and sculptor. He is a walker, birdwatcher, meditator and a regular attendee of silent retreats.

He is currently working on a series of paintings as a commission for a local authority at the culmination of nine month community project titled, ‘Exploring Spirituality through Art’.

Jason is now showing work at Thelma Hulbert Gallery in Devon after being shortlisted for the Evolver Prize. He recently had an Arts Council awarded solo exhibition at Poole Lighthouse and was winner of the first Poole Open with an exhibition to follow at Poole Museum in early 2016.

Ruth Philo Breath I 2014 Oil & wax on canvas

Ruth’s paintings explore abstract qualities, concerned with surface, mark and colour and their power to evoke feeling and memory. The paintings develop through a dialogue with the process and result in their own condensed histories.

She has an MA in Fine Art from Norwich University of the Arts (2011) and regularly exhibits in the UK. She has recently had a piece selected for the Jerwood Drawing Prize 2015 Recent Exhibitions include:

2015: Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London; Contemporary British Painting Brentwood Stations, Brentwood Cathedral, Brentwood; This Year’s Model, Studio 1.1 London.

2014:@PaintBritain, Ipswich Art School Gallery, Ipswich; British Contemporary Painting: Priseman-­‐Seabrook Collection, Huddersfield Art Gallery, Huddersfield; Cley14, Cley next the sea.

Marion Piper Service Road (Pastures/Gold/1) 2015 Acrylic on canvas

Born Norfolk, England 1963.

Lives and works in High Wycombe. A studio member of Angelika Studios, a collective and project space, since 2011 Graduated in Fine Art BA Hons, Buckinghamshire New University, 2012 Recent exhibitions include: 2015 Now You See it... Marion Piper and Cally Shadbolt. The Chapel, Speen; Geometry: Wonky & Otherwise, curated David Manley, Déda, Derby; MK Calling, Open selection, Milton Keynes Gallery; Solo Series 2015, Skip Dance, Angelika Studios, High Wycombe; Contemporary British Abstract Painting, curated by Matthew Macaulay and Terry Greene, SE9 Container Gallery, London

Hanna ten Doornkaat P 021 2015 Acrylics, ink, pencil, colouring pencil, gold leaf, tape, on plywood

Since graduating Hanna has been exhibiting regularly both in the UK and abroad. She worked as a visiting lecturer at Kingston University and taught privately until 2010 and now works full time making art. She has been actively involved in the curating of several group shows. Hanna has been selected for the 2015 Jerwood Drawing Prize.

Education 1998 BA Kingston University 2002 MA Wimbledon School of Art

Most recent exhibitions: 2014 Drawing Abroad, Gallery 8, Sydney, Australia Art in transit, BBK Galerie, Oldenburg, Germany 2015 ' un crayon dans le coeur', Antwerp, Belgium