John Carter at 80: Selected Works

John Carter at 80

John Carter

John Carter's studio, London

John Carter at 80 Selected Works

1 March – 2 April 2022

Seeing and knowing; situating the work of John Carter Andrew Wilson

In 1966, writing in the catalogue to the third New

medium-specific categories of painting and sculpture.

Generation exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery,

The opening line of Donald Judd’s ‘Specific Objects’

the critic Robert Hughes identified an aspect of John

essay, published in 1965, was characteristic of such

Carter’s work that has since become an oft-repeated

thinking. In the essay, he identifies the moves being

hook for critics, as much as a question for the artist to

made towards what became known as minimal sculpture,

answer. Hughes suggested that Carter’s work ‘occupies

and states quite directly how ‘half or more of the best

a half-way point between painting and sculpture’.1

new work in the last few years has been neither painting

William Packer, writing five years later, at the time of

nor sculpture’.5 For Judd, the specific objects he was

Carter’s second solo exhibition at the Redfern Gallery,

concerned with had a ‘wholeness’ and were without

held that ‘the objects which he so carefully makes like

apparent composition, were non-pictorial and so also

a sculptor, he uses as a painter. His is the illusion of

anti-illusionistic. They occupied and were made from

perspective, not the real thing. The events he talks about

‘real space’ – the three-dimensional ‘actual space is

are pictorial, not actual, though they are real enough.’2 In

intrinsically more powerful and more specific than paint

1990, John Carter answered this observation (as he had

on a flat surface’.6 The work of Judd – as much as that of

before and since) by admitting straightforwardly that

Robert Mangold or, in different ways, Sol LeWitt – exerted

‘it is characteristic of my work that a dialogue between

a degree of influence on Carter by the end of the 1970s,

painting and sculpture takes place.’ He describes his

but, even so, he cannot be considered a minimalist in

work as being mostly made up of ‘wall objects’: ‘these

the way Judd describes, however much a questioning of

“objects” usually possess some of the characteristics

the value of medium specificity – painting or sculpture –

of painting eg: flatness, divided surface areas and

might be held in common.

sometimes colour, but they will also have sculptural qualities: physical bulk and contours which are often non-rectangular.’3 A few years later, he half-jokingly described his work as ‘flat objects which are neither painting nor sculpture – two and a half dimensions!’4 Through his work Carter was questioning the attributes of painting or sculpture – not to create a hybrid art-object but instead with the ambition to create a new type of art.

The key observable divergence with Judd’s position in the mid 1960s is Carter’s focus on pictorial qualities within the formulation of his wall objects, so that the communication of illusion provides one narrative for the work. Inscribed within the composition of a work like Lever Painting 1966 (Arts Council Collection) is a potential for movement. It is not just that the fact of the incorporation of a hinge makes the implied movement

By the mid-1960s many artists in Europe and America

practically possible. The top and bottom parts of the

were challenging the inbred significance afforded to the

panel are kept apart by a wedge shape – the segmented

4

Maquette for Lever Painting 1965/66 P.V.A. on panel with hinge 58 × 108 cm

elongated triangles above and below the divide would, if

cord aligns with the white spaces between the distorted

the wedge shape was absent and the panel was ‘closed’,

blue bars, so bringing the flat abstract composition alive

describe instead elongated oblongs. This capacity for

as it communicates the illusion of a three-dimensional

one geometrical figure to become another through the

space. This feeling of the viewer physically inhabiting

suggestion of composition and the projection of that

space in order to properly perceive the work within that

composition’s implications by the viewer is far from

space is one key aspect of experiencing the realities

the minimalism of Judd. It also points to a key area that

of minimal art – the fact and non-compositional nature

Carter has successfully and consistently continued to

of the work is best recognised and understood not by

mine, located between the material facts of the work

‘looking at’ but rather by ‘being with’ and ‘thinking into’.

and how the work is experienced by the viewer – an

The result of ‘being with’ Carter’s Sight-Line, or works

experience that often plays against or complicates what

that play with perception of circles as ellipses (and vice

the viewer may know about those material facts. Since

versa) that occupied him through much of the 70s relies

the late 70s, similar juxtapositions or superimpositions

on pictorial composition and the triggering of illusion,

of geometrical figures, staged as objects, have formed a

rather than a minimalist fact and lack of any articulation

consistent basis for his work.

of composition. Nevertheless, throughout his career,

The action of perception came to assume a central concern for Carter through the 1970s, developing from works like Corner and Sight-Line, both made in 1972.

These two works in simple terms present the mechanics

Carter has always been concerned with how each work might stage and present the idea it encapsulates to the viewer – how the work might unfold itself before the inquiring eye and mind.

of perspective and the relationship of vanishing point

Stepping back, Carter’s emergence in the mid 1960s

to a changing viewing position. Such a description risks

and his inclusion in the third New Generation exhibition

suggesting that these works have an overly didactic

in 1966 placed him within a particular mindset that

intention, as opposed to the experience of wonder that

identified radical recent shifts in painting and especially

they actually deliver from such spare articulation of

sculpture in Britain, and also how this played out

materials. A portion of a long horizontal white panel (in

internationally. In sculpture these shifts revolved around

Corner this is shaped to occupy the corner of a room)

the use of new materials such as fibreglass, and went

is painted with diagonal bars of blue, each of which

hand-in-hand with a new approach to making that was

appears at first to be distorted. In front of the panel

closer to constructing, assembling or fabricating than

and stretched diagonally across it is a nylon cord. The

to traditional approaches – and with this change the

viewer, moving around the work experiences how the

character of the sculptures changed too. They became

5

Sight-Line 1972 Acrylic on cotton duck with painted steel and cord 176 × 400 × 122 cm

more object-like and declarative, more rooted in an urban

two halves held apart by a triangle.’8 His description here

mindset, less depictive and more obviously autonomous

of Lever Painting concentrates on what has happened

in intention. These moves were also complemented by an

to create the composition – a compositional event in

understanding of the role colour had to play in sculptural

that it suggests potential – rather than an embrace of

thinking – between being within the material or applied

movement as such. His concentration is also on the

to the material as a skin; the use of fibreglass by many

application of processes to create a work rather than

artists was key to this tension.

setting up the conditions for chance or arbitrary process

Carter’s statement included in the catalogue for the New Generation exhibition reflects the moves that he was following in his work. He describes his work primarily as painting; concentrating on the capacity for new acrylic paints to present colour as part of the material of a painting rather than just something applied onto it. With colour and material becoming one, so too does colour and the formation of compositional structure (he later suggested to the curator Bryan Robertson how ‘colour and the structure’ come into being at the same time, so

and following that through. He then ends his statement by providing a framework that has continued to be fundamental for his ongoing practice as an artist and which he has continued to refine: ‘In my use of forms I try to by-pass that graphic arbitrariness of placement by giving the parts of a painting a fundamental, mechanical, or even at times mathematical relationship. So that a series of natural sequences takes place in which one thing follows another in a process of simple cause and effect.’9

that the identification can be made of ‘the structure-

What Carter describes in these last sentences of his

and-the-surface-pattern being the same thing, the one

statement is a way of working that shows a direct

is the other’ ). One direct consequence of this approach

connection to a web of influence that had acted on

to compositional structure can be felt in how elements

him as an art student at Kingston College of Art

of it might be thought to be ‘capable of movement’. This

between 1959 and 1963 and subsequently. It also

leads him to describe most of his paintings as being

points towards his identification by the early 1980s

‘about events, dramas and stories’, but he is careful

with principles of constructivist and concrete art. As a

to stress that ‘this should not be interpreted in any

student he had received a traditional artistic training

literary way since they do not refer to anything outside

where the attainment of a breadth of artistic and craft

themselves. The events are actual physical ones which

skills followed a set curriculum driven by a national

take place in the painting itself … a panel is split and the

examination system. Aware that there was more

7

6

excitement to be had elsewhere, in his final year Carter

also continued to provide a stimulus to him was Rudolf

enrolled in a two-week winter course of experimental

Arnheim’s Art and Visual Perception, first published in

painting in 1962 run in London by Harry Thubron with

1954.10 He returned to Kingston having been introduced

the artists Terry Frost, Hubert Dalwood and the critic

to new ways of working with new materials and ways of

and historian Norbert Lynton. The experience of being

thinking about what he was doing as an artist.

introduced there to the Bauhaus and the principles surrounding Basic Design suggested to Carter that the work of the artist might be not just about accomplishing the tools to reproduce the appearance of things but, more fundamentally, be concerned with understanding how the principles of colour, form, space and growth effect not just what is seen but also how this may be translated through artistic practice. Crucially, he realised that his training as an artist was incomplete if it just concentrated on hand and eye, without including the mind. As a direct result of the course he discovered books that have continued to exert an influence or at the very least act as tangible way-markers towards finding his own voice as an artist. These included Le Corbusier’s The Modulor, published in 1954 and which introduced Carter to principles of proportion and harmony; Lawrence Alloway’s Nine Abstract Artists – a book accompanying a 1954 exhibition presenting a new generation of British artists working within the constructivist tradition, of which work by Anthony Hill

In the autumn of 1963, after Carter had left Kingston, he took up a Leverhulme travelling scholarship to Italy.

Since 1958 he had been taught a traditional range of skills, during the year in Europe he taught himself a parallel history of art by going around museums of France and Italy that year. More importantly, this concentrated encounter with the art of the past made him feel ‘the necessity to make new art for our own time’.11 He finished his scholarship with a term at the British School of Rome and there he applied techniques of collage – first learnt at the winter school – to abstracted geometrically-organised elements of the Italian landscape and architecture such as road signs, striped Italian level crossings, black and white banded Sardinian church architecture, and the like. These sources were so submerged as to be illegible in the resulting works that made up his end of term show in June 1964. Carter had started to approach his work as ‘painting objects’ for the first time.

and Mary Martin especially struck a chord with Carter;

These brightly coloured op-paintings lay the ground for

and Matila Ghyka’s The Geometry of Art and Life, that

work that Carter pursued following his return to London,

introduced Carter to ideas underlying pictorial structure.

work that was confirmed by what he encountered at the

Another book that Carter came to later and that has

1964 Venice Biennale. That year the Biennale declared

Corner 1972 Oil and polyurethane on board, metal bar and cord 128 × 359 × 187.5 cm

7

the triumph of contemporary American art over the

scale nature of such painting also created a new type

European traditions that Carter had previously been

of encounter – a new space – between the work and the

immersed in. The U.S. Pavilion signalled the strength

spectator. Although Carter wished to engage in this new

of new languages of art that could be both abstract and

way with the spectator he did this through work that was

demonstrably of the world as we know it, with a range of

at much smaller scale, and it would not be until his own

work embodying the triumph of late modernist painting

inclusion in the third New Generation exhibition and his

alongside its post-modernist refutation – showing the

subsequent exhibitions at the Redfern Gallery that scale

work of Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, John

increased. Furthermore, he didn’t set out to envelop the

Chamberlain, Jim Dine, Claes Oldenburg, Morris Louis,

spectator in his work but rather create an engagement

Kenneth Noland and Frank Stella. The effect of this was

through manipulation of the action of perception using

fairly immediate. After a short period using recognisably

optical as much as pictorial methods in which the action

pop imagery, Carter returned to the ‘painting-objects’ he

of illusion is quite real (between what is known and what

had started to make in Rome; works that were abstract,

is real).

made, collaged, assembled, constructed. Colour was arranged in hard-edged bands, stripes, blocks or

Having encountered a particular thrust of U.S. painting

fields. Canvas gave way to interlocking wooden panels.

and sculpture in Venice, as a result of his inclusion in

Painterly gesture was banished in favour of anonymised

the third New Generation show in 1966, Carter gained a

surface. Emblem (made originally in 1964 and later

Stuyvesant award to travel and work in North America

reconstructed in 1999) was the result of bringing

for three months from the autumn of 1966 to the spring

together three separate paintings from Rome made up

of 1967. He criss-crossed the country staying for longer

of slats of colour to make chevrons in the upper and

periods in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and New

lower panels. The middle panel acts as a plug between

Mexico, spending most of his time travelling, observing

the other two and suggests a rotational motion as if

the landscape and looking at art.12 The work that resulted

the slats of the upper panel had been rotated by 90° to

from his time in America formed the basis of his first solo

create a sharper angle pulling the upper panel of blue/

show at the Redfern Gallery in 1968, with one work also

red chevrons towards the lower panel that is itself made

included in Bryan Robertson’s fourth New Generation

up of four columns of diagonal black and white slats to

exhibition in the same year. These works were assembled

create two rows of chevrons. As an image it is direct and

and made mostly from wood although their finish and

uncompromising. Its symmetry has heraldic qualities

paint surface suggested metal, and their forms recalled

found equally in the work of Noland and Ellsworth Kelly

the expanse of the New Mexico landscape (Mesa

as also, in Britain, the work of Jeremy Moon or Robyn

1968), toll-booths on American motorways (a series of

Denny. The work’s shaped nature also chimed with

three First Spacer Paintings 1967-8) or more generally

recent developments, both with Frank Stella’s work as

travelling by Greyhound bus to New Mexico (Archway

with that by Moon or Richard Smith in Britain.

1968 summons up movement through a portal or under a

One way to approach Carter’s work of the mid 1960s is

bridge or overpass).

in this context of an abstract painting that in Britain had

These works mark the beginnings of a decisive shift in

already been typified in the early 1960s by the Situation

Carter’s outlook. By 1971 and his second solo exhibition

painters in Britain, such as Denny and Smith, along

it would be impossible to describe his work in such

with Bob Law, Bernard and Harold Cohen, Gordon

pictorial or anecdotal ways. It was also clear that Carter’s

House, William Turnbull and others, or in terms of the

interest in the suggestion of developmental motion

constructed welded sculpture of Anthony Caro (and

within a work’s composition – the viewer’s engagement

Caro’s 1963 Whitechapel exhibition had a significant

with the work resulting in an unfolding of content –

impact on Carter just before he went on his Leverhulme

ran counter to the predominantly symmetrical, single

scholarship); similarly, affinities can be identified with

shot, compositions that characterised much hard-edge

Noland, Stella and Kelly’s work. The matter-of-fact

geometrical painting and sculpture of the 1960s and

approach to materials as to definition of painted image

1970s. By contrast, formed between mathematical

was held in common with the aim to create a painting

precision and intuition, the explicit nature of Carter’s

as an autonomous object. The declarative and large-

work came to revel in asymmetry. Since the early 1970s

8

his work was characterised by clarity and precision,

Constructivist forms were intended as visual proof of the

a reduction and refinement of structure and form

immutable logic and coherence of universal geometries,

applied to the basic building blocks of wood, paint and

while their seeming counterparts in minimalism were

geometric shape constructed to communicate an idea

demonstrably contingent – denoting a universe held

held within the geometry and colour deployed. Such

together not by Mind but by guy wires, or glue, or the

distilled statements as Squares 1970 reignite the action

accidents of gravity.’13 However much works like Archway

of one key aspect of his work – that it should operate in

or Mesa may connect with the minimal language that

the perceptual field between what is known and what

Krauss describes, it is instead with the continued

is seen. Seeing and understanding was at the heart of

legacies of constructivism and art concret that Carter

that group of perspectival works that followed in 1972

has most fruitfully made his home and returned him to

in which ellipses become circles or three-dimensional

what he recognised as an early stimulus as a student.

shapes appear flat. Then, again, a simplification occurs, perhaps best defined by his Frame works of 1979-80, pairs of thin frame structures whose outlines are each made up of an oblong and parallelogram.

And yet, the identification of Carter with constructivism is not straightforward. Carter’s work runs alongside without directly engaging with the thread of constructivist or constructionist activity in Britain since

The emergence by the early 60s of the twin poles

the early 1950s. Through the 1970s and early 1980s, his

of modernist abstraction (Situation in Britain, Post-

work became more simplified, refined and concerned

Painterly Abstraction in America) and new realist pop

with the presentation of simplified structural situations

had been formed through a clear connection to everyday

(for instance, frames where the area ‘cut out’ is the same

experience; the subject-matter, content and experience

as the area of the frame – and the areas cut out also

of art was not distanced from daily life. This could be

provide the inner surfaces of the object’s opening – the

felt not just in the type of work being generally made

resulting object being the reconfiguring of one surface).

– the nature of image and material – but also how it

Yet, he was never described (or described himself) as a

was approached and perceived by the viewer. In this

constructivist. At this time, as post-conceptualism of the

respect, more minimalist work – in different ways, say,

late 70s was eclipsed as a dominant tendency by neo-

the work of Donald Judd, Carl Andre, Robert Mangold,

expressionist or new-image painting and sculpture, the

Stella, Denny or Moon – primarily occupied an explicitly

ways of working that Carter followed, relying on systems

phenomenological arena that was the same space as the

and analysis, became even more marginalised. It wasn’t

viewer so that encounters with the work revolved around

until after 1986 that Carter came to self-identify in this

perceptual and haptic engagement and response. It was

way and one catalyst for this was the invitation in 1985

this space of perceptual activity within minimalism that

from Galerie Hoffmann near Frankfurt to contribute to

fascinated Carter through the 1970s.

the large group exhibition Die Ecke-Le Coin-The Corner.14

In the 1960s and early 1970s it was common for minimalism to have ascribed to it the historical antecedent of Russian constructivism – that there was in a sense little distance travelled between work such as Naum Gabo’s Two Cubes (Demonstrating the Stereometric Method) 1930 and Donald Judd’s Untitled 1972 (both Tate collection). However encouraged by the retrieval of the history of Soviet revolutionary art at the time such comparisons were, they were also almost entirely

The gallery, run by Adelheid Hoffmann and Hans-Jürgen Slusallek, focused on international artists working within the legacies of constructivism and art concret (they described the gallery’s remit as being with ‘rational concrete art’) and from this single event Carter found on the continent a broad community of like-minded artists that offered opportunities for both discourse and exhibition that has been productive and sustaining ever since.15

erroneous, as Rosalind Krauss debunked in her 1978

Within the 1920s and into the 1930s, constructivism could

essay ‘Sculpture in the Expanded Field’: ‘the content of

be identified in many different ways – in recently Soviet

one had nothing to do with, was in fact the exact opposite

Russia, the work of Tatlin or Rodchenko, Lissitszky or

of, the content of the other… Gabo’s celluloid was the

Gabo described different positions as did its international

sign of lucidity and intellection, while Judd’s plastic-

spread through Europe as can be witnessed through the

tinged-with-dayglo spoke the hip patois of California…

crucible of the Bauhaus, or the different approaches of

9

László Moholy-Nagy or Theo van Doesburg. Through the

that it should ‘be constructed completely with pure

1930s the distinctive social urgencies of constructivism

plastic elements…a pictorial element has no other

became more diluted by the political shifts in Europe

meaning that what it represents, consequently it

leading at the end of the decade to the Second World

possesses no other meaning that what it is by itself’; the

War. After the war, in Britain, these social forces forced

construction should be simple and direct; technique

an identification between the drive for reconstruction

should be precise and be the result of absolute clarity.18

and a rigorous approach to form and structure that the group of constructionists collected within Nine Abstract Artists – including Victor Pasmore, Kenneth and Mary Martin and Anthony Hill – espoused through their concentration on the relief form. The activities of the Systems group of artists in the late 60s and early 70s broadened the terms of reference not only through use of a range of media (including painting) but crucially through a concentration on the application of principles of systematic process that was both analytical and verifiable. If constructivist art always maintained a dialogue between rational determining logic and intuition, with these artists their focus was largely on analytical and decodable systems.

As Carter’s work of the last 40 years amply shows, the concern with constructivist or concrete principles, such as a preoccupation with clarity of structure ordered according to mathematical principles rendered through geometric process – for instance, the ideas of rotational symmetry, the overlaying or superimposition of different neutral geometric figures (oblong and parallelogram, for instance) in a myriad of ways, or the linking of positive and negative space through given ratios of area – serve Carter’s attention to the poetics of perception between what is known and what is seen. It is this that perhaps explains why critics have struggled to categorise his ‘wall objects’; are they paintings (images formed through the manipulation of illusion) or sculpture (things

In a 1983 interview Carter reinforced the consistency of

formed materially in real space)? They instead present

his pre-occupation with the action of perception – what

constructed objects that are demonstrably factual and

he defined as the ‘poetics of visual performance, in

yet play with perception creating a ‘poetics of visual

terms of structure, perspective and interplay between

performance’.

known flat surfaces and implied volumes, or weight and balance, and these are ideas to do with the way you

Andrew Wilson, January 2022

see things and the way you understand them.’16 The ‘performance’ is enacted by the artist in the studio and then this takes place – is staged – through the approach of the viewer to the physicality of the work, reading its qualities of mass or absence, responding to its colour

Endnotes

tonalities and its neutral surface qualities, before then

1

unlocking the systems that have been followed to structure the formation of the work. All of this is available

Robert Hughes, The New Generation: 1966, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London 1966, p.38.

2

William Packer, ‘Beyond the Frame’, Art and Artists, December 1971, p.47. Writing in 1974, Packer reinforced this by writing:

to the eye. Carter has maintained for him that ‘what is

‘His work has always fallen within that debateable land that

important is that the final appearance of a … wall-object,

lies somewhere between Painting and Sculpture; yet, though

should be the result of the system or process which

the objects he makes are unquestionably three-dimensional,

brought it into being. The fewer “artistic” decisions,

his preoccupations remain primarily those of the Painter. He concerns himself with problems of spatial ambiguity and the

the better. The elements of my work are bound by a

vocabulary of pictorial illusion.’ William Packer, ‘John Carter’,

systemic logic which is established beforehand. The system, once set, must be followed-through absolutely

Financial Times, 11 November 1974.

3

to its conclusion.’17 Theo van Doesburg’s two-part 1930

Objekte von 1971-1990, Edition & Galerie Hoffmann, Friedberg 1990, n.p.

manifesto Art Concret – six clear clauses, followed by longer ‘comments’ on each clause, provided one of the

4

John Carter, untitled statement for ‘Blick über den Armelkanal’, 1994, collected in John Carter, Ideas and Intentions, Editions

most direct underpinnings for the historic tendency Carter is allied to – that art is universal; that the work

‘Dialogue between Klaus Staudt and John Carter’ in John Carter

Tandem, Gerpinnes 1995, p.25.

5

Donald Judd, ‘Specific Objects’ [Arts Yearbook, 8, 1965], Donald

should be fully conceived and formed before it is

Judd: Complete Writings 1959-1975, Press of the College of Art

produced; that it should exclude lyricism, symbolism;

and Design, Halifax, Nova Scotia 2005, p.181.

10

6

Ibid., p.184.

7

Bryan Robertson and John Carter, ‘Introduction’ (responses to the artist to questions submitted in conversation by Bryan

8 9

Cohen and Tim Johnson, eds., Constructivist Forum no. 6, 1987, p.40.

15

Germany were provided by the activities during the late 80s and

1983, Warwick Arts Trust, London 1983, np. Relatedly, Carter’s

early 90s of the Pro Foundation organised by Dutch artist Fré

use after 1985 of marble powder mixed in with medium and

Ilgen. Carter engaged with these (one result being his meeting

pigment lent his colour a new materiality producing a surface

in 1989 with Charles Biederman) and has ever since participated

effect that was both tangible and ethereal in equal measure.

in similar conferences (one example being the annual colloquia

Over the last 35 years he has varied the use of marble powder in

organised in Erfurt by the Forum Konkrete Kunst through the

this way and more recently has also not been using it at all.

early 2000s) and exhibited widely throughout the continent

John Carter, untitled statement, The New Generation: 1966,

of Europe within the context of concrete and constructivist

Whitechapel Art Gallery, London 1966, p.42.

tendencies, and making friendships with artists like Hartmut Böhm, Klaus Staudt and Claus Bury.

Three works by Carter were acquired by institutional collections from The New Generation: 1966 exhibition: Alan Bowness

16

Bryan Robertson and John Carter, 1983, op.cit., np.

selected Lever Painting 1966 for the Arts Council Collection,

17

John Carter, Ideas and Intentions, Editions Tandem, Gerpinnes 1995, p.9.

Scatola 1966 was presented to the Oldham Gallery by the Contemporary Art Society (selected by Joe Tilson), and

10

Meetings for symposia as for exhibitions in the Netherlands and

Robertson), John Carter, paintings, drawings and structures 1965-

18

Paraphrased from Theo van Doesburg, Otto Carlsund, Jean

Sideways and Down 1966 was acquired by the Peter Stuyvesant

Hélion, Léon Tutundjian, Marcel Wantz, ‘Art Concret. The

Foundation and subsequently presented to Southampton City

basis of concrete painting’, Art Concret, April 1930, p.1. English

Art Gallery through the Contemporary Art Society.

translation in Joost Baljeu, Theo van Doesburg, Studio Vista,

Carter discusses the importance of these books in the 2019

London 1974, pp.180-181.

‘Interview with John Carter R.A. by Patrick Morrissey https:// www.saturationpoint.org.uk/John%20Carter.html 11

John Carter, ‘Between Dimensions’, John Carter on Paper, Royal Academy of Arts, London 2019, p.23.

12

Before Carter left, Bryan Robertson had furnished him with a list of names and addresses of artists, critics and dealers to meet, several of whom he did meet, however socialising in this way was not his priority. The list, preserved in Carter’s archives, includes Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Motherwell, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Ad Reinhardt, Barnett Newman, Robert Morris and Yvonne Rainer, Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, Mark Rothko, Larry Poons, as well as curators such as Kynaston McShine, Bill Lieberman, Henry Geldzahler (marked as ‘for everything’), Thomas Messer, the dealers Leo Castelli and Sidney Janis, and collectors such as Robert and Ethel Scull, Philip Johnson, Burton Tremaine and – marked as ‘crucially important’ – both Ben Heller and William Rubin.

13

Rosalind Krauss, ‘Sculpture in the Expanded Field’ collected in, The Originality of the Avant-Garde and Other Modernist Myths, MIT Press, London 1986, p.278.

14

The artist Nigel Hall had visited Galerie Hoffmann, subsequently suggesting to Carter that it might be a gallery sympathetic to his work. Consequently, Carter sent the gallery a recent catalogue of his work and, as a result, he was later invited to participate in Die Ecke. The exhibition, inspired by Tatlin’s corner counter-compositions, took two years to organise and included 109 artists from 17 countries. A small number of works including Carter’s were realised for the exhibition, with all other work shown as proposals and documentation, the totality of the exhibition being realised through an accompanying publication. Carter with George Meyrick and Gary Woodley, all included in the exhibition, described how the installation and opening of the exhibition ‘became a truly international event developing into an informal convention in which ideas were discussed and information exchanged’; see their article ‘Die Ecke-Le Coin-The Corner Exhibition’ in Nathan

11

Double Equal Areas in Red 1981 Oil on board 83 × 78.7 × 4 cm

12

Three Equal Rectangles (Blue) 1982 Oil on plywood 65.5 × 59.7 cm

14

Transparent Space in Blue II 1982 Oil on board 142 × 109 × 15 cm

16

Halved Areas on an Axis 1984 (completed 2005) Oil on plywood 72 × 91 × 6 cm

18

Painting on an Angled Surface II 1985 Oil on plywood 35 × 82 × 6 cm

20

Overlaid Elements: Double Square 1988 Acrylic with marble powder on plywood 100 × 200 × 15 cm

22

Untitled Theme: Complete Fragment II 1988 Acrylic with marble powder on MDF 42.5 × 94 × 7 cm

24

Untitled Theme: Triangular Slots 1988/89 Acrylic with marble powder on plywood 98 × 110 × 10.4 cm

26

Untitled Theme: Archway II 1988 Acrylic with marble powder on plywood 40 × 42 × 7.5 cm

28

Untitled Theme: Pierced Square, Yellow 1988/90 Acrylic with marble powder on plywood 36.5 × 36.5 × 6.5 cm

30

Superimposed Elements: Four Squares I 1989/90 Acrylic with marble powder on plywood 24 × 96 × 9.5 cm

32

Superimposed Elements in a Square I & II 1990 Acrylic with marble powder on plywood Each part: 100 × 100 × 15 cm

34

Intersecting Elements II 1991 Acrylic with marble powder on plywood 60 × 30 × 10 cm

36

Superimposed Elements: Horizontal Formation (Blues) 1991 Acrylic with marble powder on plywood 25 × 50 × 7.3 cm

38

Diagonal Slice 1995 Acrylic with marble powder on plywood Two parts, each 226 × 66 × 12 cm

40

Cross Traversing a Square 1999 Acrylic with marble powder on plywood 100 × 100 × 5 cm

42

Right Angles II 1999/2020 Acrylic with marble powder on hardboard Diptych: overall length 142.7 cm Each part: 45.7 × 71.1 cm

44

Right Angles (Raw Umber and White) 1999 Acrylic with marble powder on board 19.5 × 60.5 × 4.5 cm

46

Three Turns 2002 Acrylic with marble powder on plywood 93 × 97.7 × 7 cm

48

Parallelogram: Folded Square 2004 Acrylic with marble powder on plywood 80 × 88 × 6.7 cm

50

Four Turns: Vertical Format 2005 Acrylic with marble powder on plywood 178 × 120 × 10 cm

52

Positive and Negative Forms II 2008 Acrylic with marble powder on plywood 122 × 83 × 8.5 cm

54

Pierced Square in Red 2008/10 Acrylic with marble powder on plywood 51 × 49 × 4 cm

56

Inclined Plane, First Study 1982 Chalk and wash on paper 69.5 × 48 cm

58

Transition Project 2021 Acrylic gouache on paper 25.9 × 21.7 cm

From One Side to the Other, Study 2020 Acrylic gouache on paper 38.3 × 34.1 cm

60

Column, Eight Identical Shapes 2018 Acrylic gouache on paper 37 × 23.8 cm

Displacement: Horizontal Format 2019 Bronze 24.5 × 66 × 9.4 cm Edition: 6

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Chronology 1942 Born Hampton Hill, Middlesex,GB 1958-59 Studies at Twickenham School of Art 1959-63 Studies at Kingston School of Art 1962 Experimental Painting course under Harry Thubron and Terry Frost 1963-64 Leverhulme Travelling Scholarship, to France and Italy 1964 British School at Rome 1965-66 Works as assistant to Bryan Kneale. Begins part time teaching at London College of Printing. Later teaches part-time in many art schools.

1966 Exhibits in ‘New Generation’ at Whitechapel Gallery, London 1966-67 Peter Stuyvesant Foundation Travel Bursary to USA 1968 First solo exhibition at the Redfern Gallery 1976 Wins a prize at the Tolly Cobbold/Eastern Arts 3rd National Exhibition 1977 Arts Council of Great Britain Award 1979 Arts Council of Great Britain Purchase Award 1983 Retrospective exhibition at Warwick Arts Trust, London 1986 Takes part in international exhibition ‘Die Ecke’ at Galerie Hoffmann, Friedberg, Frankfurt, Germany 1999 Retires from all part-time teaching, on leaving Chelsea College of Art and Design 2007 Elected Royal Academician 2010 Retrospective exhibition at the Redfern Gallery and the publication of a monograph on the artist’s work by the Royal Academy of Arts 2016 Awarded Hon.Doctorate in Art and Design by Kingston University Lives and works in London.

Solo Exhibitions 1968 'First Exhibition: Paintings, Constructions, Drawings', Redfern Gallery, London 1971 'Recent Work', Redfern Gallery, London 1974 'Paintings, Constructions and Drawings,' Redfern Gallery, London 1977 'New Works', Redfern Gallery, London 1978 'For Four Days', Studio Exhibition, London 1979 'Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings', The Old Library Building, University of Reading 1980 'Constructions', Nicola Jacobs Gallery, London 1983 'Paintings, Drawings and Structures, 1965-1983', Warwick Arts Trust, London 'Constructions and Drawings', Nicola Jacobs

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1987 1989

1990

1991

1994 1995

1996

1998 1999 2000 2001

2002

2003

2004

2005 2006

Gallery, London 'New Work', Moris Gallery, Tokyo 'New Work', Nicola Jacobs Gallery, London Moris Gallery, Tokyo Gallery Yamaguchi, Osaka, Japan 'Drawings and Structures', Sumi Gallery, Okayama, Japan Nicola Jacobs Gallery, London 'Objekte und Zeichnungen', Edition & Galerie Hoffmann, Friedberg, Germany Carré Estampes (with Luc Thiburs), Luxembourg 'Wand Objekte', Galerie Wack, Kaiserslautern, Germany Knoedler Gallery, London 'Objekte', Museum Moderner Kunst Landkreis Cuxhaven, Otterndorf, Germany Belloc Lowndes Fine Art, Chicago, USA 'Wandobjekte', Gudrun Spielvogel Galerie & Edition, Munich, Germany Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels de la Cambre, Brussels, Belgium 'Recent Work', Francis Graham Dixon Gallery, London 'Skulpturen und Wandobjekte', Galerie Lattemann, Mühltal-Trautheim, Darmstadt, Germany 'Objekte, Zeichnungen, Druckgraphik', Galerie St. Johann, Saarbrücken, Germany 'Surface, Colour, Structure; Neue Wandobjekte', Gudrun Spielvogel Galerie, Munich 'For Four Days', Studio Exhibition, London 'Wandobjekte', Galerie Emilia Suciu (with Ursula Diebel), Ettlingen, Germany 'Farbigen Wandobjekten', Werkstatt-Galerie Gundis & Heinz Friege, Remscheid, Germany Galerie Its-Art-Ist, Waterloo, Belgium Galerie Wack, Kaiserslautern, Germany 'Between Painting and Sculpture', The Slade Gallery, University College, London Espace Fanal, Basle, Switzerland 'Arbeiten auf Papier und Wandobjekte', Galerie Lattemann, Mühltal-Trautheim, Germany 'Wall Sculptures', Benoot Gallery, Knokke-Zoute, Belgium 'Wandobjekte und Arbeiten auf Papier', Artmark Galerie, Spital am Pyhrn, Austria 'Recent Work', The Blue Gallery, London Konstruktiv Tendens, Stockholm, Sweden Galerie Konkret Martin Wörn, Sulzburg/Breisgau, Germany Benoot Gallery (with Horst Linn), Knokke-Zoute,

2007

2008

2009

2010 2011

2012

2013

2014

2015 2016

Belgium 'Wall Objects', De Vierde Dimensie, Plasmolen, Netherlands Galerie Wack, Kaiserslautern, Germany 'Surface, Structure, Colour; Neue Wandobjekte', Gudrun Spielvogel Galerie, Munich 'Wandobjekte 1896 – 2008' (with Lars Englund), Galerie & Edition Hoffmann, Friedberg 'British Arts, John Carter', Live and Moris Gallery, Tokyo Konstruktiv Tendens, Stockholm, Sweden Galerie St.Johann, Saarbrücken, Germany 'Take 2', Works on Paper (with Belinda Cadbury), NSA Noborimachi Space of Art, Hiroshima, Japan 'Carter', Espace Fanal, Basle, Switzerland 'Retrospective', Redfern Gallery, London 'Wall Sculptures', Galerie Grewenig/Nissen, Heidelberg, Germany 'Two and a Half Dimensions', De Vierde Dimensie, Plasmolen, Netherlands 'Between Dimensions', Galerie La Ligne, Zurich, Switzerland 'Sideways and Down', A special display of the 1966 sculpture with three other works, Southampton City Art Gallery, UK Galerie Wack, Kaiserslautern, Germany 'To the Edge', Young Gallery, John Creasey Museum, Salisbury, UK Two large early works from the Arts Council Collection installed in Royal Festival Hall for longterm display 'Surface Defined; Neue Wandobjekte,' Gudrun Spielvogel Galerie, Munich, Germany 'Between Dimensions', Tennant Gallery, Royal Academy of Arts, London 'Surface and Structure: An Exhibition of Recent Work', Redfern Gallery, London Galerie La Ligne, Zurich, Switzerland Galerie Leonhard, Graz, Austria 'Les Etudes, les Estampes', Fondation Louis Moret, Martigny, Switzerland 'John Carter, neuere wandobjekte,' Galerie Hoffmann, Friedberg, Germany 'Arbeiten auf Papier Retrospektiv', Galerie Wack, Kaiserslautern, Germany ' Déplacements', Galerie Wagner, Le Touquet Paris Plage, France 'Adeiledd ac Arwynebedd', MOMA Machynlleth, Wales, UK 'Belinda Cadbury and John Carter', Galerie

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2017

2018

2019

2022

Leonhard, Graz, Austria 'Between Painting and Sculpture', Galerie La Vitrine, Fribourg, Switzerland 'Surface – Relief', Atelier- Editions Fanal, Basle, Switzerland 'Erweiterte Malerei', Museum der Wahrnehmung, MUWA, Graz, Austria 'Painting becomes Object, Neue Wandobjekte', Gudrun Spielvogel Galerie, Munich, 'John Carter + Klaus Staudt', Galerie Hoffmann, Friedberg, Germany 'John Carter: Sight Lines' Jerwood Gallery, Hastings, UK 'John Carter: On Paper', Redfern Gallery, London 'John Carter: Sight Lines', Jerwood Gallery, Hastings, UK 'John Carter: On Paper, Surface and Structure', Redfern Gallery, London 'John Carter RA, In Print', Royal Academy of Arts, London 'John Carter: at 80', Selected works, Redfern Gallery, London

1979

1980

1981

Group Exhibitions 1966

1968

1969

1971 1974 1975

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'New Generation 1966,' Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, tour including Museum of Modern Art, Oxford; WhitworthArt Gallery, Manchester; Plymouth City Art Gallery 'Summer Exhibition,' Redfern Gallery, London, 1967 – 1979 'Leicestershire Collection: Part II', Whitechapel Art Gallery, London 'New Generation: 1968,' Whitechapel Art Gallery, London 'New British Painting and Sculpture', UCLA Galleries, Los Angeles, touring to: University of California, Berkeley; Portland Art Museum; Vancouver Art Gallery; Henry Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston; Musée d’art Contemporain, Cité du Havre, Montréal 'Seven Redfern Artists', Redfern Gallery, London 'British Painting ’74', Hayward Gallery, London 'Cleveland International Drawing Biennale', Middlesbrough Art Gallery, touring to: Arts Council Gallery, Belfast; National Museum of Wales, Cardiff; Birmingham Art Gallery; Carlisle Art Gallery; Charlotte Square Gallery, Edinburgh; Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle;

1984

1985 1986

1988

Camden Arts Centre, London 'The British Art Show,' Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield, touring to: Arnolfini, Bristol, Royal West of England Academy and Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery; Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Hatton Gallery, University of Newcastle 'Drawings by British Artists', British Council Touring Exhibition 'Tolly Cobbold, Eastern Arts 2nd National Exhibition', Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, touring to The Castle Museum, Norwich; Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich; Camden Arts Centre, London; Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield 'The First Exhibition', Nicola Jacobs Gallery, London 'The British Council Collection', Serpentine Gallery, London 'John Moores Exhibition 12', Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool 'British Art 1940-1980, The Arts Council Collection', Hayward Gallery, London 'Tolly Cobbold, Eastern Arts 3rd National Exhibition', Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, touring to: Chiristchurch Mansion, Ipswich; Castle Museum, Norwich; Institute of Contemporary Art, London; Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield 'The British Art Show, Old Allegiances and New Directions 1979-84', City of Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery; Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh; Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield; Southampton Art Gallery 'New Works on Paper,' British Council Touring Exhibition to: Poland, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, East Germany & Romania 'Contemporary Art Society Exhibition', Sutton Place,Surrey 'Die Ecke, Le Coin, The Corner', Edition & Galerie Hoffmann, Friedberg, touring to Musée Cantonal des Beaux Arts, Sion; lngolstadt Stadtheater, lngolstadt 'Von Zwei Quadraten,' Wilhelm Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen 'Null-Dimension', Galerie New Space, Fulda; touring to Kunst International, Hipp-Halle, Gmunden; Muzeum Architektury, Wroclaw 'Britannica: 30 Ans de Sculpture,' Musée André Malraux, Le Havre ; touring to Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerp; Centre d’Art Contemporain, Toulouse

1989

1990

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

'The Presence of Painting, Aspects of British Abstraction 1957-88', Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield; touring to Hatton Gallery, Newcastleupon-Tyne; Ikon Gallery, Birmingham 'Arte Constructivo y Sistematico', Centro Cultural de la Villa, Madrid 'The Spuikom Models', Gallery Bellamy 19, Vlissingen '1000 cubic cm Geometrische Miniaturen', Wilhelm Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen and Galerie De Sluis, Amsterdam 'Between Dimensions', Curwen Gallery, London 'John Carter, Masaji Kashlo, Tamotsu Shiihara, Makio Yamaguchi', Gallery Yamaguchi Warehouse, Osaka 'Tendenz Konstruktiv, Zehn Bildhauer aus Sieben Europäischen Ländern', Bildhauergalerie 'Konkrete Multiples II', Galerie L’ldée, Zoetermeer 'Geometrisk Abstraktion X', Konstruktiv Tendens, Stockholm 'Ytans Djup', Konstruktiv Tendens, Stockholm 'A Double Exhibition,' University Gallery, Reading 'Konkrete Kunst International', I.D.A.C Foundation, Zoetermeer 'Geometrisk Abstraktion XI', Konstruktiv Tendens, Stockholm 'Imprints and Ka! Editions', Galerie Lydie Rekow, Crest 'Aspects Actuels de la Mouvance Construite Internationale', Musée des Beaux Arts, Verviers; Koninklijk Museum, Antwerp; Galerie Its-Art-Ist. La Hulpe, Belgium 'Skulptur und Architektur: Ein Diskurs,' Lichtwiese, Technische Universität, Darmstadt 'Forum Konkrete Kunst Erfurt', Museum der Künstler, Erfurt 'Projekt 30 x 30 Konkrete Kunst International,' Wilhelm Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen 'Interférences', Musée des Beaux-Arts, Mons 'Blick über den Armelkanal', Pfalzgalerie, Kaiserslautern 'Kleine Bilder, Zeichnungen, Objekte, Plastiken, Accrochage,' Gesellschaft für Kunst und Gestaltung, Bonn Autour du Papier', Abbaye de Bouchemaine, Angers 'Ka! Editions', Eagle Gallery, London 'Jubiläum', Gudrun Spielvogel Galerie & Edition, Munich 'Buck über den Armelkanal', Kunstmuseum, Thun

1997

1998 1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

'British Abstract Art, Part 3: Works on Paper', Flowers East, London 'Open Door', Magyar Képzömüvészeti Föiskola, Budapest 'Zeichnen Konkret,' Galerie St Johann, Saarbrucken 'Zeichnungen', Galerie Wack, Kaiserslautern 'Concrete Kunst', Cultureel Centrum, KnokkeHeist, Belgium 'Point, Line, Plane', Francis Graham-Dixon Gallery, London 'Von der Fläche in den Raum', Galerie im Hause Dacheröden, Erfurt 'Music - Small is Beautiful', Flowers East, London 'Badur, Carter, Tyson', Galerie Avivson, Paris 'L'Art Constructif à travers l’Europe Contemporaine, Château des Bouillants, Dammarie-lès-Lys, Melun 'Art Constructif en Europe 1950-1998', Museu de Arte Contemporânea do Ceará, Fortaleza, Brazil 'Pure Abstract Art 30 × 30/40 × 40', Mondriaanhuis, Amersfoort 'Triennial Sculpture Exhibition', Royal West of England Academy, Bristol 'Naju International Art Festival', Naju, Korea 'Small is Beautiful', Flowers West, Los Angeles 'Traits d’Union', Artothèque, Annecy '30 Jahre Galerie St Johann - 30 x 30 x 30 Malerei, Objekte, Zeichnungen', Galerie St Johann, Saarbrücken 'Constructive Art in Europe at the threshold of the new millennium', Galerie Emilia Suciu, Ettlingen; and 'Hors Lieu', JMM, Strasbourg 'Mondiale Echo’s', Mondriaanhuis, Amersfoort '30 Jahre Galerie St.Johann – Das entgrenzte Bild, 'VKB Galerie, 10 Gmundner Symposion, Gmunden 'Das entgrenzte Bild', Städtische Kunstsammlungen, Schloss Salder, SalzgitterSalder; Gesellschaft für Kunst und Gestaltung e.V. Bonn; Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen 'British Abstract Painting 2001', Flowers East Gallery, London 'Poesie der Farbe', Galerie St. Johann, Saarbrücken 'Summer Exhibition', Royal Academy of Arts, London, annually, from this date 'Europa - Konkret - Reduktiv', Museum Modern Art, Hünfeld; Muzeum Architektury Wroclaw, 'Zeichnen Konkret', Galerie Grewenig, Heidelberg 'Hommage to... the Square?' Galerie & Edition

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2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

68

Hoffmann, Friedberg 'Ausstellung: 10 - Zehn - X', Peterskirche, Forum Konkrete Kunst, Erfurt 'Konstruktive Kunst aus England', Stadtbucherei, Niebüll 'Europa Konkret', Altana Galerie, Technische Universität, Dresden 'Black and White', Benoot Gallery, Knokke -Zoute, Belgium 'Mesures Art International', Musée Matisse, Le Cateau-Cambrésis 'Zuwächse', Graphische Sammlung, Pfalzgalerie, Kaiserslautern '50 Quadrat', Galerie + Edition Konkret Martin Wörn, Sulzburg '50 Quadrat', Orangerie des Musées, Sens 'Argumenta', Atlas Sztuki, Lodz 'John Carter, Julia Farrer, Noel Forster, Recent Work', Emma Hill Fine Art, London 'Jahresausstellung 2005/06 Multiple Objekte', Galerie St. Johann, Saarbrücken 'Handdruck + Objekt', Galerie Wack, Kaiserslautern 'Geometrisk Abstraktion XXIV 2005', Konstruktiv Tendens, Stockholm 'To the Edge', Beardsmore Gallery, London 'Leben mit Kunst', Die Sammlung Kaldewey, Museum Haus Ludwig, Saarlouis '1985 - 2005 Jubiläums-Ausstellung Gundis und Heinz Friege', Galerie der Stadt, Remscheid 'Ausstellung Forum Konkrete Kunst Erfurt', Mainzer Rathaus, Mainz 'Critics Choice, William Packer', Lemon Street Gallery, Truro 'Ausstellung Motiva', Austria Center, Vienna 'ARTfutures', Contemporary Art Society, Bloomberg Space, London 'Exemplifizieren wird Kunst', Wilhelm Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen, and Vasarely Museum, Budapest; Ludwig Museum im Deutschherrenhaus, Koblenz 'Towards a Rational Aesthetic: Constructive Art in Post-War Britain', Osborne Samuel, London 'Geometric Abstraction – a view,' Benoot Gallery, Ostende, Belgium 'A Rational Aesthetic. The Systems Group and Associated Artists', Southampton City Art Gallery, Southampton 'ARTfutures', Contemporary Art Society Exhibition, Bloomberg Space, London 'John Carter, Julia Farrer, Albert Irvin, Peter

2009

2010

2011

2012

Sedgley, Marc Vaux', Friends of Jules de Goede, Broadbent, London 'Das Helle and das Dunkle in der Konkreten Kunst', Forum Konkrete Kunst, Peterskirche, Erfurt, Germany 'das kleine format – petit format – small format', Institut für konstruktive kunst und konkrete poesie, Kunsthaus Rehau, Rehau, Germany 'Aspects of British Abstract Art 1950 – 1985', Portland Gallery, London 'Gegenstandlos', 200 Künstlerinnen aus 18 Ländern, Gesellschaft für Kunst und Gestaltung, Bonn, Germany 'Positionen konkreter Kunst heute', Landesmuseum Mainz, Mainz, Germany 'L’Oblique', Un regard sur la géometrie contemporaine, Musées de Montbéliard, France 'Dialogues + Transformations', Frank Badur, John Carter, Julia Farrer, Eagle Gallery EMH Arts, London 'Mehr fach. - kunst in kleinen auflagen', Galerie Konkret Martin Wörn, Sulzburg/Breisgau '40 Jahre Galerie St.Johann', Jahresausstellung 2009/10, Galerie St Johann, Saarbrücken 'Couleur et Géométrie. Actualité de l’Art Construit Européen', Musées de Sens, France; Kunstverein 'Talstrasse' e.V. Halle, Germany; Kunsthaus, Nürnberg; National Museum, Kielce, Poland; Centre d’Art Contemporain Frank Popper, Marcigny, France (2011) 'Galerie Emilia Suciu, Geometrisch – Abstrakt – Kinetisch', Kunstverein Speyer 'Edition Konkret Martin Wörn,' Kabinettausstellung im Kunstverein Freiburg, Freiburg 'A Quiet Moment', John Carter, Simon Fitzgerald, Yoko Sawai, Gallery Yamaguchi, kunst-bau, Osaka 'Formes et Lumière: la Sculpture dans l’Art Construit, Musée de Cambrai, touring to: PierreAndré Benoit Museum, Alès, France 'NSA collection, Part-1 & Part-2', Noborimachi Space of Art, Hiroshima 'Blau', Galerie Konkret Martin Wörn, Sulzburg/ Breisgau Group Exhibition, De Vierde Dimensie, Plasmolen, Netherlands '(geometrische) Abstractie 1950-2010, een hommage aan Joost Baljeu', Galerie Witteveen, Amsterdam 'Ausbruch, Malerie und realer Raum', Museum Pfalzgalerie, Kaiserslautern, touring to:

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

Academie der Künste, Berlin; Museum im Kulturspeicher, Würzburg; Kunsthalle, Rostock 'Konstrukivismus, Op-Art, Kinetik', Galerie Leonhard, Graz 'Skulpturen', Ausstellung im Skulpturenpark beim Viadukt und in der Galerie, Galerie La Ligne, Zurich 'Modern British Remade', An Arts Council Collection Exhibition, Park Hill, Sheffield 'Positionen konkreter Kunst heute', Stadtmuseum Simeonstift, Trier 'Fanal', regard sur 35 ans d’editions, Galerie Gimpel & Müller, Paris 'RA Now', Royal Academy of Arts, London 'Kontraste von Real bis Konkret Handzeichnungen', Galerie Grewenig/Nissen, Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim, Germany 'Gifted: From the Royal Academy to The Queen', The Queen’s Gallery, London 'Overzicht 1', De Vierde Dimensie, Plasmolen, Netherlands 'Automatic Art: human and machine processes that make art', GV Art gallery, London 'A Fine Line: Concrete, Constructivist and Minimal Art', Austin/Desmond Fine Art, London 'Die Linie', Galerie Grewenig/Nissen, HeidelbergHandschuhsheim, Germany 'Ballet Concrete', ZS ART Galerie, Vienna 'Embodying Colour', Haus Metternich, Koblenz, Germany 'Affinités Abstraites', Galerie Wagner, Le Touquet Paris-Plage, France 'A Wonderful Adventure', 25 Jahre Ka! Editions, Städtisches Kunstmuseum Spendhaus Reutlingen, Germany 'Affinités Abstraites Bleues', Galerie Wagner, Le Touquet Paris-Plage, France 'Rythme et Geometrie', Couvent des Cordeliers, Musées de Châteauroux 'Contempler le Silence', Musée du Touquet-Paris Plage, France 'Hommage au Carré', Galerie Wagner, Le Touquet Paris-Plage, France 'Ein Jubiläum 25 Jahre', Gudrun Spielvogel Galerie & Edition, Munich 'Carrément 4', Espace Peugeot, Paris 'Occasional Geometries', Selection from the Arts Council Coll. by Rana Begum, Longside Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park 'Abstract Syntax', Eagle Gallery, London 'Das Werk als Raum im Raum', ZS Galerie, Vienna

2019

2020

2021

2022

'Espaces en Réflexion', Galerie Wagner, Le Touquet Paris-Plage 'New acquistions', Prints and Drawings, British Museum, London 'Gomringer!' A tribute exhibition on the occasion of his 95th birthday.

Museum der Wahnehmung, Graz, Austria 'Unfinished Business', Newcastle University 'Gifts and Acquisitions', Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, USA 'Summer Exhibition', Royal Academy of Arts, London 'Embodying Colour V,', Raum Schroth im Museum Wilhelm Morgner, Soest, Germany 'Pairings', Jaggedart, London 'Small is Beautiful', Flowers Gallery, London 'Rot ist schön – Eine Accrochage', Gudrun Spielvogel Galerie & Edition, Munich 'Hard Painting I', Phoenix Gallery, Brighton 'ZSELECTION', ZS Art Gallery, Vienna 'Gommisti', Imprints-Galerie, Crest, France 'Accrochage', Galerie Wagner, Le Touquet ParisPlage 'Summer/Winter Exhibition', Royal Academy of Arts, London 'konkret und darüber hinaus', E & K Stiftung, Freiburg 'Small is Beautiful', Flowers Gallery, London 'das unfolgsame quadrat', Galerie Hoffmann, Friedberg, Germany 'Wer Weiss?', Gudrun Spielvogel Galerie & Edition, Munich 'Winter/Summer Exhibition', Royal Academy of Arts, London 'Small is Beautiful', Flowers Gallery, London 'Winter Exhibition', Redfern Gallery, London

John Carter’s work is held extensively in public and institutional collections nationally and internationally

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Acknowledgements Andrew Wilson is an art historian, curator and critic. He was senior curator modern & contemporary British art and archives at Tate Britain 2006-2021, and deputy editor of Art Monthly 1997-2006. Exhibitions include Conceptual Art in Britain 1964-1979 (Tate Britain 2016); David Hockney (Tate Britain; Centre Pompidou Paris; Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, 2017-18) and Patrick Heron (Tate St Ives; Turner Contemporary Margate, 2018-19).

He is a founder member of the London Institute of ’Pataphysics, and is currently editor of the Patrick Heron Catalogue Raisonné project.

Photography: Peter Abrahams, John Riddy, John Webb Page 68: Portrait of John Carter by Eamonn McCabe Design: Graham Rees Design Print: Five Castles Ltd

Published by The Redfern Gallery, 2022 ISBN: 978-0-948460-90-6 All rights reserved.

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