michael kidner dreams of the world order: early paintings

MICHAEL KIDNER DREAMS OF THE WORLD ORDER: EARLY PAINTINGS

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For Michael Kidner, the purpose of art was the revelation of reality. In this he was aware that it had much in common with science, in the discoveries of which he maintained a close and intensely intelligent interest. Indeed we know that more than once in his career a new direction was indicated for him by specific articles he had read in The Scientific American, a journal more important to his work than any art magazine. There was something wonderfully serendipitous, it seems, in Michael’s use of scientific research: for example, a momentous change in the course of his work – from pure painting to the placing of objects anterior to the painting, which was to develop as a very fruitful and utterly original line of work – was initially motivated by an article in The Scientific American on the workings of the visual cortex in domestic cats.

What he shared as an artist with scientists was an essentially experimental modus operandi. Observation of the world as given was not enough, and its representation, whether ‘objective’ and measured in a predetermined way, or given subjective ‘expression’ by means of painterly gesture, was not an adequate basis for the task he had set himself: to reveal an aspect of reality by means of an ‘image’ that was conterminous with the canvas. It would be achieved through a quasi-analytic but essentially creative process of research.

Colour abstraction as an appeal to the spectator’s emotions (in the manner of Rothko, for example) ‘left the mind with nothing to think about’ and encouraged a vaguely religious imprecision of feeling, which he abhorred; the perceptual dazzle of a purely mechanical optical means (as in certain optical illusions, for example) merely stimulated the eye and mind into a mystified amazement. Kidner was after something deeper, a response that would comprehend both mind and emotion, engage the whole person wholly attending. Norbert Lynton intimated correctly that Kidner could have as well looked to music (itself of course a manifestation of mathematical principles – interval, tone, rhythm, resonance etc.) as to the procedures of science for a workable analogy or a way of proceeding.

In his notebooks, Kidner wrote: ‘I do not want my work [simply] to describe

MICHAEL KIDNER AND HIS ART

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things as they are, nor as a model for how they might be; but while being descriptive, I also want to penetrate behind the immediate appearance: I want to link things that seem mysterious or not fully understood to things that are less mysterious… to reduce the arbitrariness of description.’ That ‘arbitrariness of description’ is an inevitable outcome of our condition of being in the world. For the world streams in upon us in unstoppable motion, as a kind of chaos out of which we must seize a principle, create a structure: even moments of calm in the phenomenal world are actually made up of thousands of minute modulations and changes, modulations of light and shade: the constant flicker of nature.

His art reflects something of this phenomenological evanescence: it presents us with an immediate dynamic experience – ‘movements of colour of light and space’ - at the same moment as it proposes an order that is itself dynamic and provisional. That artistic order, seized from the welter of the perceived world, is a willed act of the imagination. Kidner knew that, and his art was just such a willed and purposeful imaginative ordering. The order in art, which pictures the reality behind the actual, had to be discovered by constant research, inductive experiment and deductive reasoning: ‘The work had to become empirical.’ Inspired by colour theory and optics (and later, mathematics and chaos theory) painting was essentially a practical means to revelation, discovery, surprise and delight.

Kidner was, in Wallace Stevens’ great phrase, a ‘connoisseur of chaos.’ He knew, moreover, that the idea of order as realised in art (what Stevens called the ‘the supreme fiction’) was, as he said, ‘not a model for how things might be’ – not an ideal, not something spiritual or mystical – but an abstract manifestation of material reality. It was experienced by the mind through the physical senses – aesthesis - and recognised as a reality intrinsically beautiful and changeable. Michael Kidner knew that art is central to the human need to map our world; it is a cartography of the spirit that begins in perception and ends in wonder. He would have deeply appreciated Georges Braque’s wonderful pensée: ‘Sensation, revelation.’

Mel Gooding, 2009 / 2012

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Violet, Black, White and Yellow c.1959

Oil on linen

101 x 152 cm / 40 x 60 in

Provenance

Discovered: Michael Kidner ’s studio, 2010

Archive

Fig. 4, 5 & 6

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Circle after Image 1959-60

Oil on canvas

151.5 x 124.5 cm / 60 x 49 in

Archive:

Fig. 7 & 8

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Green on Black, Red on Pink c.1960

Oil on linen

96.5 x 122 cm / 38 x 48 in

Provenance

Exhibited: Grabowski Gallery, London, 1962


Archive:

Fig. 4

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Untitled c.1960

Oil on linen

124 x 151 cm / 49 x 59½ in

Provenance


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Untitled c.1960

Oil on linen

101 x 121.5 cm / 40 x 48 in

Provenance


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Pink, Black and Violet, Ochre c.1960

Oil on linen

76 x 101 cm / 30 x 40 in

Provenance


Archive:

Fig. 10

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Aluminium, White and Concealed Yellow 1962

Aluminium foil, paint on wood

122 x 183 x 5 cm / 48¼ x 72¼ x 2 in

Provenance


Grabowski Gallery, London, 1968

Serpentine Gallery, London, 1984

Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1985

Flowers Gallery, London, 2011

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Big Pink 1962

Aluminium foil, paint on wood

155 x 145 x 19 cm / 61¼ x 57¼ x 7½ in

Provenance




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Brown with Blue Stripe, Black with Red Stripe,

White with off White Stripe No. 1 c.1962

Oil on linen

192.5 x 136.5 cm / 76 x 54 in

Provenance



Archive

Fig. 4

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Stripes Study for Bill 1962

Oil on canvas

121 x 151 cm / 48 x 59½ in

Archive

Fig. 4

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Violet, Ochre and Blue Stripes c.1963

Oil on linen

126 x 76 cm / 49¾ x 30 in

Provenance


Archive

Fig. 4

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Blue, Green and Grey 1963

Oil on canvas

168 x 183 cm / 66 x 72 in

Provenance

Exhibited: Grobowski Gallery, London, 1964


MAMCO, Geneva, 2005

Archive

Fig. 11 & 12

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Green, White and Yellow Moire 1963

Oil on canvas

104 x 127 cm / 41 x 50 in

Provenance



Collection: The Estate of Naomi Weaver

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Red, Green and Blue 1963

Oil on canvas

109 x 152 cm / 43 x 60 in

Provenance

Exhibited: Serpentine Gallery, London, 1984


Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz, 1985

Galeria Krzystofory, Krakow, 1985

Muzeum Narodowe, Wroclaw, 1985

Mark Barrow Fine Art, London, 2008

Archive

Fig. 17

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Orange, Blue and Green 1964

Oil on canvas

125 x 152 cm / 49¼ x 60 in

Provenance




Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz, 1985

Galeria Krzystofory, Krakow, 1985

Muzeum Narodowe, Wroclaw, 1985

Collection: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation/José de Azeredo

Perdigão Modern Art Centre Collection, Lisbon

Archive

Fig. 15

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Orange, Violet and Pink 1964

Oil on canvas

162.5 x 218.5 / 64 x 86 in

Provenance


Collection: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation/José de Azeredo

Perdigão Modern Art Centre Collection, Lisbon

Archive

Fig. 16

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Blue, Green, Pink (Times Magazine) No. 2 c.1964

Oil on linen

151 x 122 cm / 59 x 48 in

Provenance


No.1, Illustrated in Op-Art: Pictures that Attack the Eye, Time Magazine, October 1964

Archive

Fig. 4, 13 & 14

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Blue, Green, Violet and Brown Relief 1966

Acrylic on canvas on board

142 x 185 x 12 cm / 56 x 73 x 5 in

Provenance

Exhibited: Tate Gallery, London, 1967

Arnolfini, Bristol, 1967



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Butterfly Wings 1966

Oil on canvas

183 x 168 cm / 72¼ x 66¼ in

Provenance:

Exhibited: Axiom Gallery, London, 1967



RWA, Bristol, 2011

Archive

Fig. 18

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3 Sets of Primaries c.1967

Oil on linen

151 x 120.5 cm / 60 x 47½ in

Provenance


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Green (For Grabowski) 1968

Acrylic on cotton duck

168 x 121.5 cm / 66½ x 48 in

Provenance



Archive

Fig. 4

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ARCHIVE

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In a statement written for the catalogue of his exhibition at the Grabowski Gallery (Fig. 2), Michael Kidner grasps the nettle that seems to threaten his kind of art. ‘Optics,’ he begins, ‘presents the challenge that was once of-fered by perspective.’ The analogy works well. It evokes the excitement of Florence’s new pictorial science - Uccello earning black looks by his obses-sion with it, generations of painters learning to control a powerful but tricky weapon with which to conquer reality, a hint of fear, perhaps, before its harsh clarity and unidealistic foreshortenings. For the science of perspective to be formulated it had first to be desired, and while it could promote some aspects of representation and expression it could never become a self-suf-ficient material for art. So it is too with what is becoming known as optical art, in which simple elements of form and colour are nakedly composed to act on our retinal and conceptual processes. Obviously this kind of art can be as empty as any other, including representational painting within a perspective framework. It can also offer full-bodied emotional and aesthetic experiences, depending as always on the motives and profundity of the art-ist, and more than normally on the spectator’s willingness to respond.

Nowhere is this response more profitably made than before Kidner’s highly original recent works; nowhere is it more irresistibly solicited. The gallery shines with his light and colour. The reliefs (made in 1962-3), with their reflecting surfaces and sometimes hidden colours, all most simply arranged; dissolve before our eye, into tinted pools of light. The paintings (1963-4) do not so much dazzle as subtly lead us into discovering their contrapuntal play of shifting planes. They have their own key-signatures and tempi, tending more to allegretto and andante than to vivace con brio. But stirring though their effects of space and colour are, these works would still be little more than virtuoso demonstrations if they lacked any other kind of motivation.

Kidner’s paintings have always been acutely personal, as for that matter have Bridget Riley ’s. His present idiom of simple optical factors has been achieved very gradually. For Vasarely optical art is a means to environmental order and a critique of the chaotic world of tachism and action painting. Seven or eight years ago Kidner was working under the influence of De Kooning. True, he made less emphatic use of his brushmark and colours

OPTICAL ARTFig. 1

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and produced a more temperate kind of expressionism, but expressionism it was and so it has remained. Images presented through sonorous colours in unstable relationships continue to be his, means for expressing personal experiences, and in simplifying his means he has been able to intensify his expression. Each picture corresponds associatively with an aspect of his existence, and to see his work as impersonal (as people tend to do, confronted with anything less than violent display) is to remain blind to its subjective purpose. Optical art is not a system. It is a pictorial language of exceptional clarity. Kidner shows that this language is capable of profoundly poetic content.

Norbert Lynton

First published in The New Statesman 24 May 1964

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Michael Kidner notebook 1963 -

Above Fig. 2

Statement by Michael Kidner

First published Grabowski Gallery, London, 1964

Right Fig. 3

Unpublished writings by Michael Kidner

Courtesy TGA 201019, Michael Kidner Archive, Tate Gallery Archive

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Fig. 5

Yellow into White

Violet into Black 1959

Oil on paper

25.5 x 41 cm / 10¼ x 16¼ in

Fig. 6

Michael Kidner sketchbook 1963 -

Courtesy TGA 201019,

Michael Kidner Archive,

Tate Gallery Archive

Left Fig. 4

Stocklist (unstretched/ stretched)

Discovered Michael Kidner ’s studio 2010

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Fig. 7

Untitled After Image 1959

Oil on paper

38 x 25 cm / 15 x 10 in

Provenance

Exhibited: Royal Academy, London, 2009

Hubert Winter Gallery, Vienna, 2010

Fig. 8

Circle After Image 1959

Oil on paper

51 x 38 cm / 20 x 15 in

Provenance

Exhibited: Serpentine Gallery, London, 1984


Royal Academy, London, 2009


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Fig. 9

Untitled 1960

Oil on paper

28 x 38 cm / 11 x 15 in

Provenance



Fig. 10

Lozenges 1960

Oil on paper

28 x 37 cm / 11 x 14½ in

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Fig 11.

Grabowski Gallery, London 1964




Fig 12.

Grey Wedges on Blue

and Turquoise 1963

Oil on paper

38 x 28 cm / 15 x 11 in

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Fig. 13

Untitled 1964

Oil on paper

30 x 19 cm / 11¾ x 7½ in

Provenance



Private Collection

Fig 14.

Sketchbook, August 1963




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Fig. 15

Lightbulb 1964

Oil on paper

39 x 56 cm / 15½ x 22¼ in

Provenance



Fig. 16

Untitled 1963

Oil on paper

28 x 38 cm / 11¼ x 15 in

Provenance



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Fig. 18

Untitled 1966

Oil pastel on paper

28 x 25 cm / 11 x 10 in

Provenance



Fig. 17

Untitled 1963

Oil on paper

23 x 23 cm / 9¼ x 9¼ in

Provenance



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1917 Born, Kettering, Northamptonshire

Prizes and Honours

1963/65 John Moore’s Painting Prize1964 Gulbenkian Foundation Purchase Award1969 Arts Council, Belfast, Northern Ireland1978 International Print Biennale, Norway2004 Elected as a Royal Academician

Solo Exhibitions

1959 St Hilda’s College, Oxford1962 Grabowski Gallery, London, with William Tucker1964 Grabowski Gallery, London

Courtesy TGA 201019, Michael Kidner Archive, Tate Gallery Archive

MICHAEL KIDNER RA (1917-2009)

Michael Kidner, London 1966Photograph by Jorge S. Lewinski © The Lewinski Archive at Chatsworth Michael

1967 Axiom Gallery, London Gardner Centre Gallery, University of Sussex, Brighton Arnolfini, Bristol, with Malcolm Hughes

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Betty Parsons Gallery, New York City, with Bruce Tippett, Michael Tyzack and John Walker1974 Lucy Milton Gallery, London1975 Jacomo Santiveri Gallery, Paris, with Norman Dilworth and Jeffrey Steele1981 ON Gallery, Proznan, Poland Kunstfackskolan, Stockholm, Sweden Galleri Sankt Olaf, Norrkoping, Sweden, with KG Nilson1983 Air Gallery, London Galleri Engstrom, Stockholm, with Francis Pratt, David Saunders and Gillian Wise Ciobotaru. Tour to Norrkopings Konstmuseum and MalmoKonstall1984 Michael Kidner; Painting, Drawing & Sculpture, 1959-84, Serpentine Gallery, London (ACGB Exhibition)1985 Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne (ACGB Exhibition)

Hatton Gallery Newcastle upon Tyne, 1985© Photograph by P. Raftery

Museum of Sztuki, Lodz, Poland. Organised by Ryszard Stanislawski, sponsored by the British Council and Polish Government, Galeria Krzystofory, Krakow Victoria Art Gallery, Bath Museum Narodowe, Wroclaw, Poland1986 Cieszyn Gallery of Contemporary Art, Poland Joszefvarosi Kaillito Terem Gallery, Budapest, Hungary1987 Amos Anderson Museum, Helsinki, Finland, with Matti Kujasalo and Marcello Morandini1988 Escola De Artes Visuales, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil1989 Galerie De Sluis, Leidschendam, Holland, with Fre Ilgen, Leonardo Mosso and Sigurd Rompza Galerie St Johann, Saarbricken, West Germany, with Ilgen, Mosso and Rompza1990 The Wave: Concepts in Construction, Galerie Hubert Winter, Vienna, Austria Mario Flecha Gallery, London Eine Neue Raumlichkeit, Galerie Schegl, Zurich, with Ilgen, Mosso and Rompza At-Tension to the Wave, Centre for International Contemporary Arts, New York 1991 Galerie Bismark, Bremen1992 Galerie Hubert Winter, Vienna, Austria1993 Oddzial Museum, Rezydeancji Ksiezymlyn, Museum Sztuki, Lodz, Poland1993/4 Galerie Hoffmann, Friedberg, Germany1994 Centre for the Philosophy of the Natural and Social Sciences, London1995 Galerie Emilia Suciu, Ettlingen, Germany1997 Henry Moore Institute, Leeds Michael Kidner, Work in Progress, Emilia Suciu Gallery, Ettlingen, Germany2001 Galerie Hubert Winter, Vienna2003 Love is a Virus from Outer Space, Flowers East, London2003 Michael Kidner, In front of his own Image, Galerie Hoffmann, Friedberg, Germany 2004 Rhombic Speculations, Flowers Central, London

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2006 Creationism?, Muzalewska Gallery, Poznan, Poland2007 Equilibrium Disturbed, Foksal Gallery, Warsaw, Poland No Goals in a Quicksand, Flowers East, London2008 The Novelty of Silkscreen, Flowers Graphics, London2009 Dreams of the World Order 1960s, Royal Academy of Arts, London2010 Dreams of the World Order 1960s, Galerie Hubert Winter, Vienna2011 Winterson Gallery, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, with Louise Bourgeois, Tracy Emin, Luke Jerram & Bridget Riley 2012 Dreams of the World Order: Early Paintings, Flowers Gallery, London

Group Exhibitions

1957 New Exhibition 1957, Penwith Society, St Ives1958 AIA 25, RBA Galleries, London New Vision, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull1960 AIA Group Show, London Start a Collection, AIA, London FPG8, Walker Gallery, London1961 20 painters, AIA, London Momentum 2, Raille Gallery, London1963 Spring Exhibition 1963, Bradford City Art Gallery, Bradford John Moores Liverpool Exhibition, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool1964 About Round/London Galleries, Leeds University Seven ’64, McRoberts and Tunnard Gallery, London Painting Towards Environment, ACGB touring exhibition Cross Section 1964: London-Leicester, Leicester Museum and Art Gallery Formal Visual Dialogue, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth New Painting 1961-1964, ACGB touring exhibition1965 John Moores Liverpool Exhibition, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool Spring Exhibition 1965, Bradford City Art Gallery, Bradford The Responsive Eye, MOMA, New York and tour of USA Trends, Municipal Art Gallery, Manchester Post Formal Painting, Reading University Movements, Municipal Art Gallery, Manchester1966 Ten ’66, McRoberts and Tunnard Gallery, London First Exhibition, Axiom Gallery, London Recent Purchases by the Contemporary Arts Society, Whitworth Gallery, Manchester Corsham Painters, ACGB touring exhibition Undefined Situation, Howard Roberts Gallery, Cardiff Summer Exhibition, Penwith Society, St Ives Kinetic Art, Herbert Art Gallery, Coventry1967 Recent British Paintings: Peter Stuyvesant Foundation Collection, Tate Gallery, London Post-Formal Painting, Midland Group, Nottingham 1st Edinburgh Open 100, Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh John Moores Liverpool Exhibition, Walker Arts Gallery, Liverpool1968 100th Exhibition, Grabowski Gallery, London Henri Gallery, Washington DC Indian Triennale, British Council1969 Systeemi, Amos Anderson Museum, Helsinki1970 Open Painting Exhibition 1970, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Belfast Past Artists in Residence, 1965-69, Gardner Centre Gallery, University of Sussex Colour Extensions, Camden Arts Centre, London1971 Matrix, Arnolfini, Bristol1972 Systems, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London Third International Print Biennale, Bradford System, Lucy Milton Gallery, London1973 First Contact, Peterborough

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Systems II, Polytechnic of Central London, London1974 Critic’s Choice (Marina Vaizey), Arthur Tooth & Sons, London British Painting ’74, Hayward Gallery, London1975 Contemporary Arts Society Art Fair, London Recent British Paintings, Musée de Grenoble, France1976 Colour, Southern Arts Touring Exhibition Rational Concepts, Touring Holland1977 Colour Symposium, Royal College of Art, London British Painting 1952-1977, Royal Academy, London Constructive Context, ACGB Touring Exhibition Rational Practice, University of Sussex 4th Norwegian International Print Biennale, Bibliotek, Fredrikstad, Norway1979 Sixth International Print Biennale, Bradford First European Print Biennale, Heidelberg Eleventh International Print Biennale, Tokyo1979-80 Photography in Print Making, V&A Museum, London1980 5th Norwegian International Print Biennale, Bibliotek, Fredrikstad, Norway 8th International Print Biennale, Krakow, Poland1981 Book Works, Touring Exhibition in UK and USA Contemporary Artists in Camden, Camden Arts Centre, London1982 Painter-Printmakers, West Surrey College of Art, Farnham1983-84 Series, Touring Exhibition1983-85 Concepts in Construction 1910-1980, Touring museums in the USA and Canada World Print IV, Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco and Tour of Museums in USA1983 British Artists at Cyprus College of Art, Woodlands Art Gallery, London1984 British Artists Books, Atlantis Gallery, London1985 Air Gallery, London Imaginez Construire, Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris Independent Curators International, New York1986 Contemporary Art Fair, London (represented Galerie Hoffmann) 40 Years of Modern Art, Tate Modern, London 11th International Print Biennale, Pawilon Wystawowy, Poland1987 Galerie de Sluis, Leidschendam, Holland PRO Conferentie, Dordrecht, Holland 3rd International Biennial Print Exhibit, ROC, Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan1988 Null Dimension, Galerie New Space, Fulda, West Germany1988/89 Corsham Painters, Touring UK1989 Arte Sistematico y Constructivo, Centro Cultural de la Villa de Madrid, Madrid Constructive Versus Computer, Galerie FARO, Rotterdam EKOart, Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw,1990 Britisch-Systematic, Stiftung fur Konstructive & Konkrete Kunst, Zurich Franklin Furnace Museum, New York, Travelling to Nelson Atkins Museum Contemporary Illustrated Books; Word & Image, 1967-1980, University of Iowa Museum of Art, Kansas City Art Frankfurt, Galerie Hubert Winter, Vienna and Galerie Fabian Walter, Basel Between Dimensions, Curwen Gallery, London Universal Progression, Central Exhibition Hall, Moscow Art 21, Galerie Fabian Walter, Basel Sammlung Jurgen Blum, Museum Modern Art, Hunfeld, West Germany1991 Art Frankfurt, Gallery Hubert Winter, Frankfurt Art London, Adrian Mibus Gallery, London Art Miami, Austin Desmond Gallery, London1992 Critics Choice (Clare Henry), Cooling Gallery, London BaGaGe, Galerij van De Lawei, Drachten, Holland (touring to Gmunden, Austria) Galerie St Johann, Saarbrucken Musee d’Art Contemporain de Lyon, W Lodsi, Lyon & Muzeum Sztuki Art Frankfurt, Galerie Hubert Winter, Frankfurt1993 The Sixties, Barbican Art Gallery, London Creativity and Cognition, Loughborough University, England

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Aspects Actuels de la Mouvance Construite Internationale, Musee des Beaux-Arts, Verviers, Belgium Egypt International Print Triennale, Cairo1994 Art Frankfurt, Gallerie Hoffman, Frankfurt Pro, Palais Royal, Antwerp (originally in Verviers) Basel Art Fair, Galerie Hoffman, Basel1995 Blick uber den Armelkanal, Pfalzgalerie, Kaiserslautern, Germany Constructive Context, Tate Modern, London Structures on the Edge of Chaos, Whitford Fine Art, London Post-War to POP, Alexandria, Washington D.C. Madi-Art Gallery, Arte Struktura International Gallery, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Basel Art Fair, Galerie Hoffmann, Basel Madi Art, Macey Center, New Mexico Tech, USA1996 Kunstmuseum Thun, Kunst Konkert, Switzerland Neuer Kunstverein, Aschaffenburg e.V. Dehnbar, Germany Immerzeit, APC Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland Creativity and Cognition, James France Exhibition Hall, University of Loughborough, England Korrekturen, Krems, Austria Art Frankfurt, Galerie Hoffmann, Frankfurt Basel Art Fair, Galerie Hoffmann, Basel British Abstract Art, Flowers East, London British Abstract Art, Galerie St Johann, Saarbrucken1997 Abstract-Optical-Kinetic, Belgrave Gallery, London The Berardo Collection, Sintra Museum of Modern Art, Portugal Basel Art Fair, Galerie Hoffmann, Basel Art Frankfurt, Galerie Hoffmann, Frankfurt1999 Bedales Exhibition, Business Design Centre, London Science in the Arts Arts in the Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest2001 British Abstract Art, Flowers East, London Le Musee de Nantes, The Madi Group, France2002 Thinking Big, Peggy Guggenheim Museum, Venice Flowers II, Flowers Central, London2004 Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London Six from the Sixties, Flowers East, London 2005 Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London Stroll On, Aspects of British Art in the Sixties, MAMCO, Geneva, Switzerland2006 Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London2007 Swinging London, Grabowski Collection, Museum Sztuki, Lodz, Poland Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London Paintings from the Noughties, Letterkenny Arts Centre, Northern Ireland Circa 1967: Works from the Arts Council Collection, Milton Keynes Gallery Towards a Rational Aesthetic, Osborne Samuel, London 2008 A Rational Aesthetic: The Systems Group and Associated Artists, Southampton City Art Gallery New Walls From Europe, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London Brit Art of the Sixties, Mark Barrow Fine Art, London2009 The Sculpture Show, V22 Contemporary Art Collection, London Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London Abstraction and the Human Figure in CAMs British Art Collection, Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon2010 Mirrors of Continuous Change, Taekwang Industrial Co. Ltd, Korea Modern Masters, Flowers Gallery, London Memorial, Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London What a Relief, Flowers Gallery, London2011 Live Your Questions Now, Mackintosh Museum, Glasgow

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Commisions

1988 Sculpture for the Museo Internazionale di Scultura all’aperto Citta’di Portofino, Italy1989 Commission for sculpture in Vlissingen, Holland1995 A net construction in each of the five windows of the new building, Dresdner Bank, Merseburg, Germany1996 Suspended sculpture, Aldeman Smith School Library, Nuneaton, England Artists in Residence, Experiment with Virtual Reality, Lutchi Research Centre, Loughborough, England

Lectures

1988 Keynote speaker PRO Conference, Fulda, Germany1993 Keynote speaker at International Symposium Creativity and Cognition, Lutchi Centre, Loughborough University, England2005 Exploring Art & Mathematics, The Queen’s College, Oxford

Selected Bibliography

Collectors Choice, The Director, November 1960Norbert Lynton, Michael Kidner, Art International, November 1961Norbert Lynton, Grabowski Gallery, catalogue introduction, 1962David Sylvester, No Baconians, New Statesman, April 1962 Helen Lambert, Michael Kidner, New York Herald Tribune, April 1962G. M. Butcher, Kidner and Tucker, Arts Review, April 1962Keith Sutton, Michael Kidner, The Listener, April 1962Michael Kidner, The Times, April 1962John Russell, Michael Kidner, Sunday Times, April 1962Oswell Blakeston, Grabowski Gallery, What’s On In London, April 1962Norbert Lynton, Grabowski Gallery, Art International, May 1962Kidner: Grabowski Gallery, Art International, 1964Kenneth Coutts-Smith, Grabowski Gallery, Arts Review, May 1964Robert Melville, The World Of Art, The Sunday Times, May 1964Norbert Lynton, Optical Art, New Statesman, May 1964 (Archive: Fig.1)Guy Brett, Ad Reinhardt and Michael Kidner Exhibitions, Manchester Guardian, May 1964Nigel Gosling, Michael Kidner, The Observer, May 1964Jules Goodard, Developments out of Situation: Malcolm Hughes, Michael Kidner andMichael Tyzack Interviewed, Isis, June 1964David Thompson, Michael Kidner, Queen Magazine, June 1964Irving Sandler, Op Art: Pictures That Attack The Eye, Time Magazine, October 1964Michael Kidner, Architectural Review, October 1964Ronald Alley, Formal Visual Dialogue, catalogue introduction, November 1964Philip James, Post Formal Painting, catalogue introduction, January 1967Norbert Lynton, Systems And Sensibilit ies, The Guardian, July 1967Guy Brett, Michael Kidner ’s New Paintings, The Times, July 1967Edward Lucie-Smith, London Community, Studio International, July 1967James Belsey, Exploration Of Space – By Two Artists, October 1967Four British Painters, Betty Parsons Gallery, October 1967Teachers’ Art Goes On Show, Bath and Wilts Evening Chronicle, November 1967 Canvas And Sculpture Joining Hands, The Christian Science Monitor, December 1967Alan Bowness, Recent British Painting, No.24, 1967Axiom Gallery, Michael Kidner/ Guy Burn, Arts Review, 1967 Stephen Bann, Systems, catalogue introduction, 1973Peter Fuller, Michael Kidner, Arts Review, April 1974Marina Vaizey, Signs of Life, Sunday Times, September 1974Stephen Bann, Rational Practice, catalogue introduction, 1978Pat Gilmour, Michael Kidner, Arts Review, June 1979Mel Gooding, Michael Kidner/ Julia Farrer, Arts Review 35, No.3, February 1983

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Sarah Kent, Time Out, February 1983Stephen Bann, Michael Kidner, Art Monthly, April 1983Peter Brades, Michael Kidner, Artscribe, April 1983The Arts Council of Great Britain, No.40, March 1984June Arts News Sheet (The British Council), No.22, April 1985Irving Sandler, American Art of the 1960’s, Harper 7 Row, New York, 1988 Michael Kidner, The Point, The Line and the Plane, Pro magazine No.5 Markus Mittringer, Experimentelles in Abgeschiedener Strenge, Die Presse, Vienna, February 1990 Michael Kidner, New Yorker, August 1990Susanna Bichler, Farbraume, Falter, Vienna, February 1990Stephen Foster, Irving Sandler, CICA, New York, 1990Prof. Stephen Bann, Britisch-Systematisch, Stiftung für Konstruktive & Konkrete, Kunst, Zurich, 1990Sabine Weder-Arlitt, Gefuhle im Systematischen Kleid, Algemeiner, Anzeigner, Zurich, February 1990Eleanor Heartney, Michael Kidner at CICA, Art in America, January 1991Dorothee Baer-Bogenschutz, Frankfurter Rundschau, 1992/ 93 Patricia Railing, Michael Kidner, Pro Magazine, March 1993Jaromir Jedlinnski, Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz, Poland, 1993Anna Sacuik, Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz, Poland, 1993Dorothee Baer-Bogenschutz, Bis der Kreis in Wellen Bricht, Frankfurter Rundschau, Die Rheinpfalz Nr. 258, November 1994Sigmund Rompza, Emilia Suciu Gallery, Ettlingen, Germany, 1995Sensing Systems: Michael Kidner The Art Book, Stadt Thun, Thuner Tagblatt, Freitag, June 1996 Nr. 149, Der Bund, July 1996Kunst Konkret 2, August 1996Work in Progress; Michael Kidner, Henry Moore Publication, 1997‘Der Fionderad’, Das Abenteuer der Erklarung, March 2001 Wiener Zeitung, March 2001ART, March 2001Prof. Stephen Bann, Michael Kidner, Love is a Virus from Outer Space, Flowers East, catalogue introduction, 2001Linda Candy and Ernest Edmonds, Explorations in Art and Technology, 2002Jaromir Jedlinski, Michael Kidner, Creationism? Jedlinski – Kidner. Conversation, 2006Francis Pratt, Irving Sandler, Michael Kidner, Flowers Gallery Publication, 2007Andrew Lambirth, Bucolic Pleasures, The Spectator, October 2007Matthew Collings, PATTERNS “R” US, Help the world with abstract Values, Modern Painters, March 2008Michael Kidner, A Constructivist by Nature, RA Magazine, September 2009Michael Kidner: Abstract Painter and Sculptor who was an early exponent of Op-Art and became absorbed by Systemic structure and optical effect, The Times, December 2009Michael McNay, Michael Kidner obituary: Op art pioneer whose work was informed by mathematics and chaos theory, The Guardian, December 2009Charles Darwent, Michael Kidner: Pioneering Op artist inspired by mathematics who strove to eliminate subjectivity from his work, The Independent, December 2009Alison Oldham, Finding inspiration in the world of science, Ham & High, December 2009Michael Kidner, painter and sculptor who pioneered Op art in the 1960s and took a scientific approach to colour and form, The Daily Telegraph, December 2009 Three Academicians remember their fellow RA’s with warmth and tenderness: Modern painters, RA Magazine, Spring 2010Bristol RWA gallery reunites Op Art artists Bridget Riley and Michael Kidner, Guide 2 Bristol, September 2011

Public Collections

Amos Anderson Museum, Helsinki, FinlandArts Council of Great BritainBritish CouncilCalouste Gulbenkian Foundation, LisbonContemporary Art Society, London

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Daimler Chrysler, GermanyGalerie Wurzburg, GermanyHuddersfield City Art Gallery Malmo Konsthall, SwedenManchester City Art GalleryModerna Museet, Stockholm, SwedenMuseum of Modern Art, New York Museum Sztuki, Lodz, PolandMuseum of Architecture, Wroclaw, PolandNational Museum, Poznan, PolandNational Museum, Wroclaw, PolandNational Gallery of Australia, CanberraNew College, OxfordNorrkopings Konstmuseum, SwedenNurenberg Museum of Contemporary Art, GermanyPfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern, GermanySintra Museum of Modern Art, PortugalSouthampton City Art GalleryStuyvesant Foundation, HollandSussex University

Tate, LondonThe Berardo Collection, Staditische Galerie, WurzburgThe Government Art Collection, LondonThe Henry Moore Sculpture Trust, LeedsUniversity of East Anglia, NorwichUniversity of WalesVanderbilt University, USAVictoria & Albert Museum, LondonWalker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool

Yellow Grey Relief 1963Acrylic on board construction109 x 152 cm / 43 x 59¾ in

Collection: Tate, London

Yellow, Blue and Violet 1963Oil on canvas167 x 152 cm / 66 x 60 in

John Moore’s prizewinner, 1963Collection: Walker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool

© 2012 Michael Kidner Art Ltd, Flowers Gallery, Mel Gooding and the Estate of Norbert Lynton

82 Kingsland RoadLondon E2 8DPT +44 (0)20 7920 7777F +44 (0)20 7920 [email protected]

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www.flowersgallery.com

www.michaelkidner.com

Published on the occasion of:Michael Kidner, Dreams of the World Order: Early Paintings12 September - 20 October 2012Curated by Amie Conway

Co-ordination/ Editorial: Amie ConwayDesign: Ewan EasonPhotography: Dave Hanger, Chris Littlewood Printing: Push, London

ISBN 978-1-906412-53-1Edition 1000

Cover image: Blue, Green, Pink (Times Magazine) No. 2 c.1964, Oil on linen, 151 x 122 cm / 59 x 48 in

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Curatorial Note:

Dreams of the World Order: Early Paintings explores four areas of Michael Kidner’s painting practice: After Image, Stripe, Moiré and Wave. These are Kidner’s progressive experiments with optical effects and rational procedures, inspired by his preoccupation with how space, pattern and form function. A year after Kidner’s death in 2009, a number of rolled paintings were discovered at his Hampstead Hill Gardens studio. These have now been reunited with this iconic body of work.

With special thanks to Tate Gallery Archive.

michael kidner dreams of the world order: early paintings

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