New Possibilities: Abstract Paintings from the Seventies

Many of the visual art works made during the 1970s found themselves neglected as attention focused on the rise of conceptual and performance art. In this exhibition, The Piper Gallery demonstrates that, even as modernist certainties were challenged, new possibilities in abstract art continued to emerge, with a vitality that may even have sprung from the precarious position in which seventies’ abstraction found itself.

New Possibilities, curated by Megan Piper and Sandra Higgins, presents works by 14 artists from the 1970s: Frank Bowling RA, Graham Boyd, Barrie Cook, William Henderson, Albert Irvin RA, Tess Jaray RA, Jeanne Masoero, C. Morey de Morand, Mali Morris RA, Patricia Poullain, Desmond Rayner, Alice Sielle, Trevor Sutton and Gary Wragg. All these artists were born between 1922 and 1950 and are still working today.

The choice of works here does not restrict itself to a particular approach, nor does it claim to be a comprehensive survey. What results demonstrates some of the eclecticism which emerges as a central feature of seventies’ abstraction. The pieces shown were made by artists at different stages of their careers, working with a wide range of techniques. Through the general diversity run various different strands: there are ‘painterly’ painters; Op artists, and some whose work relates to Op art; some whose work is ostensibly reductive and others who aim at a type of maximalism; quite a number also work with geometry. But, what is most exciting is seeing the combined work of these different artists that is rarely, if ever, shown together. Consequently, the exhibition offers unexpected, new connections that bring forth new questions about this period.

Gallery founder and director Megan Piper says, ‘It has been exciting to put together a show that celebrates diversity within the abstract painting of the decade, looking at different strands and influences and presenting established names alongside lesser-known artists.’