* * * PRESS RELEASE * * *
SANDRA BLOW: Paintings and Prints
10th Sept – 1st Oct 2016
Bohun Gallery’s September show will be a great opportunity for
collectors of 20th Century British Art to see some of the very finest
examples of Sandra Blow’s original paintings and collages gathered
together under one roof, including two of her celebrated ‘six-footers’.
Sandra Blow’s majestic 6ft sq. ‘Groundplan’ Acrylic and collage on canvas
“As well as wanting a balance in composition, there should be what I call a startling
rightness. This can be any shape or colour: the crucial thing is that although perfect in
its place, there is an unexpected quality about it, an element of surprise”
Sandra Blow in conversation with Sarah O Brien Twohig at the Royal Academy in 1994
15 Reading Road, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire RG9 1AB Telephone /Fax 01491 576228
Bohun Contemporary Art Limited Company No. 5708718 Registered office as above Director: P M Jordan Evans
‘Blue Abstract’ Gouache & collage on paper 21 x 26ins ‘Red Squares’ Gouache and collage on card 36x36ins
The show will also include smaller collages which illustrate her use of easily manipulated collage
materials, like torn paper and sack cloth and brightly coloured canvas cut-outs, which cover her
picture space. The Matisse-inspired decorative manner of her later career is well represented in
colourful works such as ‘Blue Abstract’ and ‘Red Squares’.
The exhibition also presents an over-view of her
printmaking, with a range of silkscreens from the latter part
of her working career. Her uncompromising approach
pushed printmaking techniques to new boundaries with
the introduction of Hessian, film and cloth forming a
collaged and sculptural aspect to the prints. The original
silkscreens by Blow offer a very affordable way to own a
piece of work by one of the 20th Century’s most
progressive and pioneering artists and Bohun Gallery’s
exhibition is a good opportunity for new collectors.
Sandra Blow RA (1925-2006) is recognised as one of the
most progressive figures in 20th Century British Art. A
pioneering abstract painter she worked on a grand scale
allowing for the exploration of space, movement and
texture. Endlessly innovative, her art was constantly
evolving and developing. As a woman in a male world her
achievement as an abstract artist was exceptional.
Sandra Blow was accepted at St Martin’s School of Art at the age of 15 and later studied at the
Royal Academy Schools. Her work evolved in to abstraction under the tutorage of Alberto Burri in
Italy during the late 1940s and later with Roger Hilton in St Ives. Despite her youth, she came to
prominence during the 1950s with a solo show at the Institute of Contemporary Art and solo shows
with Gimpel Fils in London and New York. As international museums began acquiring her work, she
was celebrated with a Retrospective at the Royal Academy in 1994 and an exhibition to mark her
80th Birthday was held at Tate Britain in 2015.
For full details and high res images, please contact Katie Newman on 01491 576 228
or email art@bohungallery.co.uk
15 Reading Road, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire RG9 1AB Telephone /Fax 01491 576228
Bohun Contemporary Art Limited Company No. 5708718 Registered office as above Director: P M Jordan Evans
www.bohungallery.co.uk
‘Brilliant Corner III’ Silkscreen 25 x 25ins