Elena Crippa – författare

As the twenty-first century unfolds, notions of our cultural past and how our history has influenced our present shift almost daily. Within this, accepted artistic trajectories are being questioned and new connections made. In this wide-ranging and thought-provoking publication, experts in their field address specific aspects of British art of the twentieth century. Presenting new perspectives on established narratives, subjects range from British Surrealism and the rise of corporate and private patronage, to nationality and British identity. Complemented by a range of striking images, this publication succeeds in showing the strength of the British artistic tradition while also encouraging the reader to rethink and explore the existing narrative.

Born in British Guiana in 1936, Frank Bowling arrived in Britain in his late teens, going on to study painting at the the Royal College of Art in the same cohort as David Hockney and Derek Boshier. Since he started painting in the late 1950s, Bowling has pursued a relentless exploration of the properties and possibilities of paint, experimenting with stitching, staining, pouring and dripping. Often ambitious in scale, and usually described in terms of its colourful and luminous quality, and the energetic application or accrual of paint, Bowling's work combines figuration, abstract elements, popular and autobiographical references, and demonstrates his interest in social and political imagery.This publication explores an extraordinary career spanning over 60 years. Beginning with his early figurative work created in the early 1960s, it traces the development of Bowling's practice right up to his most recent work, illustrating the artist's interest in surface textures; the tension between geometry and organic forms; and between expansive fields of colour and the accrual of thickly built impasto – as well as his use of unusual mediums, such as metallic pigments, fluorescent chalk and acrylic gels. Bowling's contribution to modern art and his wide-reaching influence are further illuminated by a combination of insightful art-historical texts and contemporary artistic voices. Featuring iconic series – such as the Map Paintings, the Poured Paintings and Great Thames – alongside rarely seen works, this book is a feast of colour and texture that highlights the quality and breadth of Bowling's long and distinguished career.

An essential introduction to the life and work of Sonia Boyce, a leading contemporary artist whose interdisciplinary practice explores artistic authorship and the creative potential in unexpected play. Sonia Boyce (b.1962) is a groundbreaking artist whose practice is founded on taking creative risks. Unafraid to play against set expectations about how art should behave, her collaborative interactions between audience and performer enable spontaneous and intimate social encounters, resulting in the creation of work that is simultaneously self-aware, visceral and open-ended. This book is a much-anticipated introduction to the life and work of this extraordinary artist. Touching on her engagement with the work of other feminist artists and her time as a leading figure in the 1980s Black British Art movement, it contextualises Boyce’s journey from her early pastel drawings and mixed-media collages to her pivotal shift to film, sound and performance art. Highlighting her artistic innovation as she experiments with medium to explore and question culture, identity and the boundaries between the public and private spheres in unexpected ways, it celebrates the visionary practice of a truly uncompromising artist.

Provides new insight into Salman Toor’s iconic, thought-provoking yet humorous paintings, which explore human interactions and the desire to belong.Salman Toor (b. 1983) is well-known for his vibrant paintings that represent people in shared moments of friendship and love, as well as experiencing solitude and alienation. The characters that populate Toor’s painting are fictional but rooted in personal experiences and memories. Toor says that his paintings ‘depict queer and immigrant lives that straddle different cultures and inhabit the tension between intimacy and exposure, belonging and estrangement. What it means to find a community, but also the daily costs associated with visibility.’Salman Toor: Someone Like You provides new insight into Salman Toor’s paintings and also addresses the artist’s manifold references and illuminates the crucial role that drawing plays in his practice as a painter.Born in Lahore, Pakistan, in 1983, Toor trained in the United States. He currently lives and works in New York. He has had major exhibitions internationally, including his acclaimed first institutional solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2020-21). The Courtauld’s exhibition will be Toor’s first solo museum show in Europe.