Basil Beattie
RA
13 April - 11 May 2013
hiltonfine art
Talk by Basil Beattie 2.30pm Saturday 27th April Tickets available from the gallery in advance ÂŁ10
hiltonfine art
Hilton Fine Art, 5 Margaret’s Buildings, Bath BA1 2LP 01225 311311 info@hiltonfineart.com www.hiltonfineart.com
Basil Beattie is one of Britain’s most respected abstract painters, highlighted
by a major show at Tate Britain in 2007. Amongst others, his work is in the collections of The Tate, Saatchi Gallery and the Arts Council. He studied at West Hartlepool College of Art, 1955 and at the Royal Academy Schools, London. He taught at Goldsmiths College London form the 1960s – 1990s where he taught the YBAs and gained a strong following amongst fellow artists. Whilst teaching at Goldsmiths Beattie became more and more aware of conceptual ideas that place language as central to contemporary art practice and challenge the importance of the expressive gesture in painting. Since 1987, seeking to get away from pure abstraction, he has developed a pictographic language which enables him to explore the symbolic and metaphorical associations that arise from these, whilst remaining committed to the physicality of the painted object as the means through which to decipher meaning. This show at Hilton Fine Art deals with Beattie’s current paintings which have the collective title of the Janus series. Janus was the Roman God, originally of light, who opened the sky at daybreak and closed it at sunset. In time, he came to preside over all entrances and exits. He is often represented as having two faces, one in front and one behind, one to see into the future, and one to see into the past. In this series Beattie uses a stack of three units, sometimes four, to frame a series of horizons, often with perspectival suggestions of travel and journeys. However any resulting illusion of space is contradicted by the raw physicality of the paint. It has been suggested the framing units resemble rear view mirrors and windscreens. Beattie recognises and accepts these references simply because the view through the windscreen might be said to denote the future and the view in the rear view mirror, the past. A powerful show by one of Britain’s foremost painters, as the Guardian art critic Adrian Searle puts it…… Looking at Beattie’s painting is a physical encounter, concrete and palpable as well as being an event which takes part in the eye and the imagination.
Price range - £1,000 - £7,800
front cover image: Approaching Distance, oil on canvas, 2010, 91 x 78cm, £7,800
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Exits and Entrances oil on canvas, 2005 30 x 40cm ÂŁ5,000
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Making a Choice I oil on canvas, 2012 30.5 x 40.5cm ÂŁ5,000
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Making a Choice II oil on canvas, 2012 30.5 x 40.5cm ÂŁ5,000
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Nine Routes, oil and wax on canvas, 2012 40 x 49.5cm ÂŁ6,500
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Beyond the Rim oil and wax on canvas, 2002 - 2004 31 x 41cm ÂŁ5,000
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At the Stroke of Midnight oil on canvas, 2012 78 x 91cm ÂŁ7,800
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Step by Step oil on canvas, 2001 26 x 30.5cm ÂŁ3,500
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When Worlds Collide oil canvas, 2012 25 x 35.5cm ÂŁ3,500
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Corridor Mound acrylic on canvas, 2012 40 x 50cm ÂŁ6,500
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Above and Below acrylic on canvas, 2012 40 x 50cm ÂŁ6,500
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Ins and Outs oil and graphite on canvas, 2012 40 x 50cm ÂŁ6,500
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Pink Blush and Beyond oil and wax on canvas, 2012 30.5 x 40.5cm ÂŁ5,000
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Drawing 2 mixed media on paper, 2011 37.5 x 45.7cm £1,350
Drawing 5 mixed media on paper, 2011 37.5 x 45.7cm £1,350
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Drawing 6 mixed media on paper, 2011 37.5 x 45.7cm £1,350
Drawing 7 mixed media on paper, 2011 37.5 x 45.7cm £1,350
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Drawing 1 mixed media on paper, 2011 37.5 x 45.7cm ÂŁ1,350
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Drawing 3 mixed media on paper, 2011 37.5 x 45.7cm £1,350
Drawing 6 mixed media on paper, 2011 37.5 x 45.7cm £1,350 29
Janus Series
In the Darkness of the Night oil and wax on canvas, 2010 76 x 61cm ÂŁ7,800
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Approaching Distance oil on canvas, 2010 91 x 78cm ÂŁ7,800
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Another Time oil and wax on canvas, 2010 76 x 61cm ÂŁ7,800
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Lighting the Night oil and wax on canvas, 2010 76 x 61cm ÂŁ7,800
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Black States oil and wax on canvas, 2010 76 x 61cm ÂŁ7,800
Another Place oil and wax on canvas, 2010 76 x 61cm ÂŁ7,800
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Time After Time oil and wax on canvas, 2010 76 x 61cm ÂŁ7,800
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Lost Days oil and wax on canvas, 2010 76 x 61cm ÂŁ7,800
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A Reminder of What’s Gone oil and wax on canvas, 2010 76 x 61cm £7,800
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Basil Beattie RA Born 1935 West Hartlepool Studied at the Royal Academy Schools Taught at Goldsmiths’ College, London until 1998 Selected Solo Exhibitions 2013 2008 2007 2005 2004 2002 2000 1998 1997 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1991 1990 1987 1986 1984 1982 1979 1978 1974 1973 1971 1968
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Hilton Fine Art Basil Beattie Two Rooms Gallery, Auckland, New Zeland Basil Beattie Paintings from the Collections, TATE BRITAIN Marking a Year – Nick de Ville, catalogue introduction Stacks, Atkinson Gallery, Millfield Above and Below, Sadler’s Wells Theatre London Storey Gallery, Lancaster Todd Gallery, London Reg Vardy Arts Foundation Gallery, Sunderland Galerie Renate Bender, Munich Path Galerie, Aalst, Belgium Todd Gallery, London Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham Todd Gallery, London Ikon Gallery, Birmingham Newton Gallery, Johannesburg Castlefield Gallery, Manchester Maak Gallery, London Todd Gallery, London Drawing on the Interior, Installation at the Eagle Gallery, London Curwen Gallery, London Curwen Gallery, London Gray’s Art Gallery, Hartlepool Bede Gallery, Jarrow Goldsmiths’ Gallery, London Newcastle Polytechnic New 57 Gallery, Edinburgh Hoya Gallery, London Consort Gallery, London Mayfair Gallery, London Greenwich Theatre Gallery. London
Selected Group Exhibitions 2009 2005 2003
Invisible cities - Jerwood Gallery London Spiral of Time, OHHS Gallery, London Drawn to be alive, Hales Gallery London 20 x 5 Drawing Eagle gallery, London 2002 Viewpoints Eagle Gallery, London 2001 Jerwood Painting prize 2001, Jerwood Gallery London Traditions and Innovation, City Art Gallery, York Three Big paintings, Sarah Myerscough Gallery 2000 British airways Terminal, JFK Airport, New York 1999 Thinking Aloud, Camden arts centre, London 1998 Art ‘98, Islington Art Fair, (Todd Gallery) Frankfurt Art Fair, (Galerie Renate Bender) Jerwood Paunting Prize ‘98, Jerwood Gallery Cologne Art Fair, Galerie Renate Bender 1997 Art ‘97, Islington Art Fair, (Todd Gallery) Yellow, Todd Gallery, London John Moores Exhibition 20, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool 1996 Art ‘96, Islington Art Fair, (Todd Gallery) Ace! Arts Council Collection, Touring Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston Oldham Art Gallery Hayward Gallery,London Ikon Gallery, Birmingham Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast. Harlech Biennale, Harlech Cologne Art Fair, (Galerie Renate Bender) 1995 Monoprints, Artspace Gallery, London Christmas Show, Green On Red Gallery, Dublin 1994 Paintmarks, Kettles Yard, Cambridge Lead and Follow, Robert Loder Collection, Atlantis Gallery, London Cologne Art Fair, (Maak Gallery, Todd Gallery, Bodo Niemann Gallery) Credo, Purdy Hicks Gallery British Abstract Art: Part 1 Painting, Flowers East, London
1992 1991
1989
Gillian Ayres, Basil Beattie, Brian Fielding, John Hoyland, Pomeroy Purdy Gallery, London Painting and Sculpture, Maak Gallery, London Chicago Art Exposition, (Curwen Gallery) Basel Art Fair, (Curwen Gallery) Goldsmiths’ College Centenary Exhibition (selected by Albert Irvin) Goldsmiths’ Gallery, London The Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London Small is Beauitiful, Flowers East, London John Moores Exhibition 17, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool John Moores Exhibition 16, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool The Abstract Connection, Flowers East, London
Collections Arts Council Collection, London Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery BUPA Contemporary Art Society, London Deutsche Bank, London The Creasey Collection of Contemporary Art, Salisbury NatWest Group Art Collection Saatchi Collection, London Swindon Museum and Art Gallery Tate Gallery, London Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
Awards 1999 1989 1986 1976
Nordstern Print Prize, Royal Academy John Moores - 2nd Prize-winner Athena Awards winner Major Arts Council Award
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hiltonfine art
Hilton Fine Art, 5 Margaret’s Buildings, Bath BA1 2LP 01225 311311 info@hiltonfineart.com www.hiltonfineart.com