//16 Situations in vitrine at Land Marks. Photo: Jasper Weinstein Sheffield//

I’m pretty late with this but there are still three or so weeks to go, so, if you have the opportunity, I recommend a visit to Hauser + Wirth Somerset, home until June 21 of the contemplative and poised exhibition Land Marks: Structures For A Poetic Universe.

Curated by historians Nicholas Olsberg and Markus Lähteenmäki, Land Marks presents 100 architectural studies and works constituting an investigation into the boundaries between sculpture and architecture and landscapes and cities.

The spell-binding space at Durslade Farm outside the village of Bruton provides the perfect setting; I am thrilled that the curators included Derek Boshier’s quizzical 1971 work 16 Situations.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 16 Situations, Building Design, Durslade Farm, Guy Brett, Hauser + Wirth Somerset, Jasper Weinstein Sheffield, Land Marks: Structures For A Poetic Universe, Markus Lähteenmäki, Niall Hobhouse, Nicholas Olsberg, Richard Hollis, Thames & Hudson, Whitechapel Art

//Exhibition cards and private view invitations, 1973 to date//

I’m assembling materials for Rethink/Re-Entry, the long-overdue monograph of the great British artist Derek Boshier I am currently editing.

The book takes its title from the early Boshier painting which inspired rock’s ultimate art-directed star Bryan Ferry to choose the name Remake/Remodel for the first track on Roxy Music’s game-changing debut LP.

//Rethink/Re-entry, oil on canvas, 1962//

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 1979, Bryan Ferry, Central Saint Martin's School Of Art, David Bowie, David Hockney, Hayward Gallery, Joe Strummer, Let's Dance, Lodger, Loves, Remake/Remodel, Rethink/Re-entry, Richard Hollis, Roxy Music, Steve Johnston, Thames & Hudson, The Clash, Whitechapel Gallery

//Kiss Kiss, Go To Work On An Egg, Christopher Logue + Tom Salter, 1968.//

//Go To Work On An Egg, Mather & Crowther, 1964.//

“People do love huge pieces of paper”.

So runs the quote heading up a section in V&A curator Catherine Flood’s excellent overview British Posters: Advertising Art & Activism, published by the museum to coincide with its multifarious design celebrations this Olympic year.

And it’s true. We do.

Or we all did, when this vital form was simultaneously a mass-medium and a highly personal communications device, when huge promotional budgets and lack of urban controls resulted in the accretive papering of our street-scapes. Meanwhile, behind closed doors, we gave posters pride of place on the walls of our bedrooms, bedsits and sitting rooms.

//Top left: Your Britain, Fight For It Now, Abram Games, 1942. Right: Keep Death Off The Road, Carelessness Kills, William Little, 1949.//

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Abram Games, As You Like It, Carateles la Candelaria, Catherine Flood, Christopher Logue, Eduardo Paolozzi, Hapshash And The Coloured Coat, John Morris, Ken Briggs, Lissitzky, M&C Saatchi, Mather & Crowther, Mike McInnerney, Richard Hollis, See Red Women's Workshop, Society Of Revisionist Typographers, Tom Salter, Typoretum, UFO, V&A, William Little