Denis Bowen; Space Age abstract painter
Hyfler/Rosner
The Independent
28 March 2006
Peter Davies
His weird work:
http://www.harlech-biennale.co.uk/2005_DennisBowen.htm
http://www.socialistfuture.org.uk/21stcenturyart/reviews/bowen.htm
Denis Bowen, painter, teacher, gallery director and critic:
born Kimberley, South Africa 10 April 1921; twice married
(one daughter); died London 22 March 2006.
For over 50 years Denis Bowen was a leading proponent of
informal abstract painting in Britain. His painting adhered
to the existential freedom and automatic procedures of
"Tachism" and "Gesturalism". In later years he marshalled
the energetic blobs, splashes and dribbles of poured or
sprayed paint towards a cosmological symbolism expressive of
phenomena like eclipses, supernovae, galactic explosions or
volcanic eruptions - themes that bridged the gap between art
and science, and expressed his interest in the revelations
and discoveries of the Space Age.
Bowen was born the son of a Welsh farmer in Kimberley, South
Africa, in 1921. Orphaned at an early age, Bowen returned to
England with his brother and two sisters in the mid 1920s.
He grew up with relations first in Manchester, then with an
aunt in Huddersfield. Showing precocious artistic talent,
Bowen entered Huddersfield Art School in 1936, where his
tutor, the Royal College-trained painter Reginald Napier,
directed him towards the RCA in London. The Second World War
put Bowen's art education on hold; but after serving in the
Navy, with which he travelled on Atlantic convoys and on
trips to the Far East, he entered the RCA in 1946.
Despite his encountering tutors like Carel Weight, Robert
Buhler and John Minton, who were figurative painters,
Bowen's tendency was to experiment with the pure processes
of painting. His awareness of paint as a deliciously
tactile, fluid substance capable of a range of expression
beyond the merely descriptive ensured his involvement with
the burgeoning avant-garde of the early 1950s.
However, Bowen's awareness of nature - particularly the
spectacular light effects of skies at dusk - also brought a
romanticism to his work. The wartime experience of the dark,
fathomless waters of Portsmouth harbour at night seen from
the deck of his frigate imprinted itself on his
imagination - the ambiguous spatial continuum between sea
and sky pierced by broad searchlight beams. Many of Bowen's
drawings and paintings of the early 1950s used this source
both as theme and iconographic device.
Bowen's teaching career began in the Interior Design
department at Kingston School of Art. He also had stints at
Hammersmith, Ealing, the RCA, the Central School and later
at the University of Victoria on Vancouver Island. Like many
painters Bowen often taught in an adjacent department to
painting, in his case that of Industrial Design; this led to
his later use of metallic car sprays and fluorescent paints.
His style matured neither in an ivory tower nor in a
cultural vacuum. He read enthusiastically about contemporary
French painting in the periodicals Art d'Aujourd'hui and
Cimaise. His artistic pantheon was not distant or academic,
for in London this ubiquitous and lifelong gallery-goer met
heroes like Giacometti, Pierre Soulages or Georges Mathieu,
artists that, through their process-led aesthetics,
consolidated Bowen's own belief in "pure painting".
Bowen was a "gallery man" par excellence. His personal
charm, articulate mind and generosity of spirit made him an
ideal ambassador for young artists and for the avant-garde
cause. Between 1956 and 1966 he directed the New Vision
Centre Gallery downstairs in the building near Marble Arch
where he would live for the rest of his life. Co-founded
with the painters Halima Nalecz and Frank Avray Wilson, the
NVCG aimed to provide a broad and democratic voice,
something that the seemingly élitist Institute of
Contemporary Art sometimes failed to do.
Many artists had early exhibitions at the New Vision; Peter
Blake and the comedian Charlie Drake enjoyed solo shows
there. A committed internationalist, Bowen gave exhibitions
to notable continentals including Piero Manzoni, the Dutch
"Zero Group" and Yves Klein's mother, Marie Raymond. The
American painter Robert Goodnough also exhibited.
Though more European in feel, Bowen's work also related to
the direct "action" painting of New York "abstract
expressionism" and Bowen met Theodoros Stamos, Mark Rothko
and Barnett Newman in London, the British painter taking
Newman to see Brunel's Paddington Station.
The New Vision was seen in some quarters as an irritant,
challenging the West End gallery status quo that wished to
specialise in a coterie of St Ives or London abstract
artists. Bowen's own exhibiting career during the 1950s,
however, extended beyond the underground walls of the NVCG
or those of the coffee houses, for he enjoyed many
prestigious solo or group shows in leading galleries in
London, Paris and beyond.
In 1957 he contributed to the Redfern Gallery's landmark
"Metavisual, Tachiste, Abstract", an exhibition that put
Bowen's painterly abstraction in context - among the other
exhibitors were Roger Hilton, Patrick Heron, Sandra Blow,
Adrian Heath and Gillian Ayres. The same year he contributed
his aptly named picture Automatic Image to the first John
Moores biennial exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery,
Liverpool.
Bowen's urge to experiment saw his work take a different
tack during the 1960s. While key paintings like Instant
Moons (1962), Colonel Glenn (1962) or Venusian (1963) used
the explosive language of thrown paint to express a
fascination with rockets and manned space travel, the colour
remained dark and sombre.
By the late 1960s, however - and in line with his emotive
poetic and astronomical titles - he formalised the recurring
planet-like discs, surrounding them with bright, sometimes
even fluorescent coronas and, in the case of Ruby Planet
(1969), emulating the crackled surface effects of fired
ceramics through a maverick use of unstable media like
acrylic on top of oil paints.
The introduction of fluorescent colours struck unearthly,
luminous effects in the 1970s. The suspicion remained,
however, that Bowen was a tonal painter rather than
colourist and even spectacular later paintings like Red
Barrier (1987), Prismatic Planet (1988) or Magma (1988) used
jet blacks alleviated by gold and silver metallic sprays.
As a member of AICA (the international art critics group),
Bowen travelled widely in later years, painting, teaching
and exhibiting regularly in the Balkans. His popularity on
the London art circuit was matched by manifold connections
abroad. But he strongly associated with his Celtic roots,
joining the Celtic Vision Group, initiated by the painters
Derek Culley and John Bellany.
A book and retrospective at the Belgrave Gallery, London in
2001, together with the belated acquisition of work by the
Tate Gallery, finally celebrated his broad, but underrated,
contribution to post-war abstract art in Britain.
Hyfler/Rosner
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> His weird work:
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> http://www.harlech-biennale.co.uk/2005_DennisBowen.htm
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> http://www.socialistfuture.org.uk/21stcenturyart/reviews/bowen.htm
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Denis Bowen
Painter, teacher and promoter of the avant garde in Britain
Marlowe Russell
Friday March 31, 2006
The Guardian
Art was the emotional heart and the intellectual rationale
of the life of Denis Bowen, who has died aged 84. A
protagonist in avant-garde European art for more than 50
years, he painted consistently, prolifically and
experimentally, taught extensively, founded the
groundbreaking, internationalist New Vision Group Gallery
(NVGG) and was an unflagging champion of non-figurative art.
Born in Kimberley, South Africa, of Welsh and English
parents, orphaned young and raised in Huddersfield by his
aunt, Denis studied at Huddersfield School of Art, served as
a chief naval radar operator during the second world war and
later attended the Royal College of Art. From the late 1940s
until 1986, he taught at Kingston Institute of Art,
Hammersmith School of Arts, Birmingham School of Art, the
Central School of Art and Design and the Royal College,
among other institutions. Hugely energetic, he usually
taught full time while producing an impressive number of
works on paper, canvas and other media, curating exhibitions
and communicating with overseas artists.
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His output falls into three broad periods. As a pioneer of
tachism (from the early 1950s to the mid-60s), he used
vigorous blocks of paint and free-form brush strokes.
Influenced by artists from the European informal movement,
such as Michaux, Fautrier, Fontana and Burri, his materials
and gestural marks acquired symbolic and emotional values.
The so-called "psychedelic" works (1969-80) evolved while he
was associate professor at the University of British
Columbia, Vancouver Island (1969-72). Accompanied by rock
music by the likes of the Rolling Stones and Jimmy Hendrix,
they were fully visible only under ultra-violet lighting.
Later "black light" shows involved collaborations with
contemporary musicians, dancers and performance directors.
Bringing together image, music and movement recalled the
Italian futurists, who Denis considered underrated compared
to the French cubists, even if their political ideology was
very different from his own.
Most recent are his "planetary" works, from the 1980s
onwards, in which Turneresque swirls of intense pigment and
discs of delicate colour call to mind solar landscapes and
eclipses.
Always inventive and independent, Denis's work centred on
the multiplicity of visual language as he imaginatively
explored inner and cosmic space - a reflection of his
lifelong obsession with space discovery. He constantly
experimented with new and apparently mut-ually exclusive
materials in his efforts to combine light, movement and
space on the canvas, working in what he called a state of
"hyperconsciousness". His work was exhibited around the
world and purchased by many important collections, including
Tate Britain, the national galleries of Israel and Italy,
and others in Australia and Poland.
An equal legacy was his promotion of abstract art and
international exchanges of ideas. It is difficult to
appreciate how alienating non-figurative art was deemed to
be in Britain during the postwar decades. It was generally
either ignored by critics or received with hostility. Even
now, British art history underplays the role of abstraction
during the 1950s and 60s. Although their role is often
overlooked, Denis and his colleagues at the NVGG made
essential contributions to shaping postwar modern British
art and enabling the emergence of significant trends.
New Vision grew out of meetings, discussions and displays of
work that Denis initiated with his students in 1951. In 1955
a permanent exhibition space was opened by Denis, Frank
Avray-Wilson, Halima Nalacz and, later, Ken Coutts-Smith at
4 Seymour Place, Marble Arch, where it remained until 1966.
Denis was not the only founder or director, but he was the
only one to remain fully involved for the life of the
gallery. In that decade, more than 220 artists had more than
250 exhibitions, many as one-person shows.
Denis was among the first to embrace internationality in the
arts. Exhibitors came from 29 countries, including Pakistan,
New Zealand, Italy, Sri Lanka, France, Holland and Israel.
The Guyan- ese painter, Aubrey Williams, exhibited, as did
Manuel Fernandez (from Goa), Judy Kassab and Ron Russell
(Australia), Bill Newcombe (Canada) and Rotraut (Germany).
New Vision remains one of the few galleries to have
exhibited black and Asian painters, sculptors and
photographers with the same ease and enthusiasm as it
offered white or British artists. It was also one of the
focal points of the European (as opposed to British) avant
garde, hosting the first exhibition of the Italian group
Forma-1 and showing the German Group Zero.
Proud of his Celtic origins, Denis founded the Celtic Vision
group in 1985 with painters John Bellamy and Derek Culley.
Recently, he developed close and affectionate links with
Macedonian artists, also part of the Celtic community, and
was honoured with the freedom of the city of Skopje.
He was immensely observant. His flat was an installation of
visual puns, ephemera, artefacts, masks, embroideries,
books, painting and objets trouvés. Few who visited in the
early years will forget the door covered with a life-size
poster of Brigitte Bardot, itself swathed in a veil and
later replaced with a collage of eyes, or the constructions
in sardine cans pinned to the kitchen wall.
As a friend, he accepted people with their flaws, and was
shrewd and pragmatic towards them. He invited Ron Russell,
and later Pindaros Michaeledes, to share the cost of his
Diorama studio, giving both painters a central London base.
In his long association with the Diorama studios in Regent's
Park, he organised exhibitions, including Cosmopolis (Bowen,
Spallone, Michaeledes, Court) and persuaded artists to
donate work to a permanent Diorama collection.
Denis was endlessly interested in ideas about art, history,
anthropology, science and anything else that caught his
attention. There was very little about which he did not have
a singular opinion. Charming and charismatic, he had
virtually no small talk. Until a few weeks ago, he was
eagerly discussing his forthcoming retrospective, curated by
his friend, the Italian critic Stella Santacatterina, at the
Rome Museum of Modern Art.
He was married and divorced twice, and is survived by his
daughter Amanda.
· Denis Arthur Bowen, artist, born April 5 1921; died March
23 2006
