PRESS RELEASE

PRUNELLA CLOUGH

A HUMAN EDGE: PAINTINGS, CONSTRUCTIONS AND GRAPHICS

23 MARCH – 24 APRIL 2012

PRIVATE VIEW: 22 MARCH 2012, 6.30 – 8.30 PM

Prunella Clough (1919-1999) was one of the finest and most respected of our post-war British

painters and a major influence on the generations of artists she taught and mentored. Her mature

style evolved after 1945 and she has subsequently been placed alongside the ‘Neo-Romantic’ group

of painters including Keith Vaughan, John Minton and John Craxton. This phase of mostly figurative

work, however, was just the starting point. For the next fifty years Clough would continue to develop

as an artist using her unique perception to examine the human condition and re-introduce the subtle

hues and tones that colour the extraneous and insignificant shapes inhabiting our lives. In their

forthcoming exhibition, Austin / Desmond Fine Art, presents an overview of her work from 1946

until her death in 1999 and will include multi discipline examples of her oeuvre including paintings,

graphics and constructed pieces.

Clough’s work combined casual and studied observations of the everyday: the banal detritus of

common objects, the incursion of nature into the urban environment, and mans’ attempts to

subjugate the natural. A Prunella Clough painting makes us reconsider how we look at our world. It

has that elusive quality of a thing half remembered, something taken for granted, a sensation

ignored. The language of her paint speaks to us; it tells us that there is beauty to be found

everywhere and in everything if we could only stop and take the time to really look.

Clough’s first solo exhibition was held at the Leger

Galleries, London in 1947. She continued to show

commercially throughout her career, exhibiting at

the Grosvenor Gallery, The New Art Centre and

Annely Juda Fine Art. In 1996 Austin/Desmond

organised Prunella Clough: David Carr: Works 1945-

1964 and although Prunella was a very private

person with a suspicion towards any exhibition of a

retrospective

nature,

she

was

nevertheless

enthusiastic and encouraging. Shortly before her

death in 1999 Clough was awarded the Jerwood

Painting Prize. The Tate Gallery held an exhibition of

her work in 2007. The monograph Prunella Clough:

Regions Unmapped by Frances Spalding will be

published by Lund Humphries in March 2012. An

illustrated catalogue is available from the gallery.

Image: Prunella Clough, Sheds, 1946

For further information or high res images please contact: Emily Austin

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

AUSTIN / DESMOND

Pied Bull Yard, 68-69 Great Russell St. London WC1B 3BN

FINE ART

T: +44(0)207 242 4443 F: +44(0)207 404 4480

gallery@austindesmond.com www.austindesmond.com

Exhibition Opening Times: Mon – Fri 10.30am – 5.30pm, Sat 11.00am – 2.30pm

Nearest Tube: Tottenham Court Road & Holborn, Entrance: FREE