A U S T I N / D E S M O N D F I N E A R T

S T E P H E N B U C K L E Y:

Selected Works 1972-1990

21 April - 26 May 2010

Private View

Tues 20 April 2010, 6.30 – 8.30 pm

P R E S S R E L E A S E

Stephen Buckley (born 1944) is widely acknowledged as one of the most gifted and

adventurous artists of his generation. His use of a constructed three-dimensional base,

often using interconnected panels, pioneered a new British exploration of the traditional

pictorial space. Buckley has never accepted the imposition of any limitations on the

materials and techniques used in creating his work. Any one painting or section can include

wood, stitched canvas, ropes, piping and household objects incorporated into the structure,

then over painted, stencilled and collaged creating a complex visual texture.

The social commentator Michael Bracewell has written:

When you look at a painting by Stephen Buckley what do you see? The

initial impact is reminiscent of a sudden chord – at times orchestral,

brooding in a minor key, but more usually sharp, bright and strident, like

the sudden and electrifying opening notes from an expert rhythm section.

And then you reach the surface of the work. The layers and edges of the

applied paint appear soft and malleable, shaped into the angle of a

corner, the ridges of which are then further defined by the contours of an

underlying material – a thread of heavy wire, or cardboard tubing, or a

length of cord. What appears at first impression to be a reasonably

simple combination of vivid, essentially primary colours, separated within

grid like patterns, geometrically defined, becomes on closer inspection –

transforming almost alchemically before the viewers gaze – a riotous

confluence of surging, swirling, effervescently vibrant shades and traces

and hues.

This exhibition will include major paintings from the early 1970s when Buckley’s work was

receiving international attention and was being placed in major public collections, notably

the Tate Gallery, London, The British Council, the Metropolitan Museum, New York and the

Yale Centre for British Art, Newhaven. Often executed on an ambitious scale, this will be

the first occasion for some of these substantial works to be been shown in Britain. The

forthcoming exhibition will pay particular attention to a group of works showing how the

artist’s compulsion to assemble a single image from multiple panels has evolved throughout

his career. In addition to the paintings we will also be exhibiting an astonishing collection of

monotypes and small etchings produced by the artist during the 1980s.

For further information and high-resolution images, please contact: Evie Howard

e.howard@austindesmond.com T: +44 (0) 207 242 4443

AUSTIN/DESMOND FINE ART Pied Bull Yard, 68/69 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3BN

T: +44(0)20 7242 4443 F: +44(0)20 7404 4480 gallery@austindesmond.com · www.austindesmond.com

Free Entrance, Nearest Tube: Holborn, Tottenham Court Road. Opening times: Mon – Fri 10.30 – 17.30

Sat 11.00 – 14.30 [during exhibitions] A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition.

Image: Stephen Buckley (b. 1944) Beaky, 1974, Wood oil & canvas, 183 x 295 cm