Clive Barker (artist, born 1940)
Clive Barker | |
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| Born | 1940 (age 83–84) Luton, Bedfordshire, England |
| Known for | Sculpture |
| Notable work | Splash,[1] 1967 Rio - Homage to Marlon Brando,[2] 1968 Homage to Soutine,[3] 1969 Skull, Gas Mask,[4] 1973 German Head ’42,[5] 1974 Sir Peter Thomas Blake,[6] 1983 Fridge,[7] 1999 |
| Movement | Pop art, Surrealism |
Clive Barker (born 1940) is a British pop artist. His work is present in private and museum collections including the Tate in London, the British Museum in London, the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Victoria and Albert museum in London, the Wolverhampton Art Gallery in Wolverhampton, the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt, Städtische Kunsthalle Mannheim, the National Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide, the Berardo Collection Museum in Lisbon, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.[citation needed]
Career
[edit]Barker was a student at Luton College of Technology and Art from 1957 until he left the course in 1959 and went to work on the assembly line at the Vauxhall Motors car factory in Luton for 18 months. While at Vauxhall, Barker realised the potential of sculptural qualities of industrially-finished objects, particularly in leather and chrome-plated metal. The influence of chrome was a lasting one, leading Barker not only to apply chrome finishes but also to work primarily in polished cast metals for the rest of his life. For nearly five decades, Clive Barker has surprised the art lover with his Pop Art sculptures which bear testimony to his individual story. Barker’s works witness his typical love of disguising reality and play on contrasts, thus introducing an element of ambiguity, a quintessential practice of the Surrealists. By casting a found object, Barker turns the ephemeral into eternity and as such positions himself as an heir to Marcel Duchamp and an inspiration to Jeff Koons' 1980's chromed objects. On occasion Barker has employed the core ideas of Conceptual Art.[8]
His first one-man shows were held at the Robert Fraser Gallery in 1968 and at the Hanover Gallery in 1969. Through the 1970s, Barker's work was exhibited at high-profile galleries in London including Anthony d'Offay and in mainland Europe at Bruno Bischofberger and the Baukunst Galerie. During the past twenty years, Barker had numerous one-man shows at Whitford Fine Art, London. A retrospective exhibition was hosted by Sheffield City Art Galleries and toured the art galleries of Stoke, Eastbourne and Cheltenham in 1981-1982. In 1983 the Imperial War Museum showed the series of 'War Heads', which they had acquired during the 1980s. In 1987, Barker's portraits were shown at the National Portrait Gallery, London.[9]
Over the years, Barker was included in numerous surveys and international exhibitions of Pop Art, including ‘Pop Art U.S.A – U.K.: American and British Artists of the ‘60s in the ‘80s’, Tokyo (1987); 'Pop Art', Royal Academy of Arts, London (1991); 'Pop Art', Norwich Castle Museum (1997); ‘Les Sixties: Great Britain and France 1962-1973, The Utopian Years’, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery (1997); ‘The Pop ‘60s: Transatlantic Crossing’, Centro Cultural de Belem, Lisbon (1997); 'Pop Art: U.S./U.K. Connections 1956-1966', The Menil Collection, Houston, Texas (2001);[10] 'Pop Art UK, British Pop Art 1956 – 1972', Galleria Civica, Modena (2004);[11] ‘British Pop’, Museo de Bellas Artes, Bilbao (2005-2006);[12] 'Supermarket Pop: Art and Consumerism', Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton (2008); 'Snap, Crackle and Pop', The Lightbox Gallery, Woking (2011); 'International Pop', Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2015), Dallas Museum of Art (2015-2016) and Philadelphia Museum of Art (2016).[13] In 2017 Wolverhampton Art Gallery[14] hosted a long overdue museum exhibition of Barker's first two decades as a sculptor.
In 2002 a catalogue raisonne of the work dating 1958-2000 was published by Skira.[15]
Personal life
[edit]Barker lives in Hampstead.[16] He has two sons, Tad and Ras, from his marriage to artist Rose Bruen.[17]
References
[edit]- ^ "'Splash', Clive Barker". Tate. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
- ^ "Werkübersicht ::: MMK Frankfurt am Main". Archived from the original on 15 December 2017. Retrieved 14 December 2017.
- ^ "Homage to Soutine | Museu Coleção Berardo | Lisbon".
- ^ "Skull, Gas Mask 1973".
- ^ "German Head 1942".
- ^ "National Portrait Gallery - Portrait - NPG 5845; Peter Blake". Npg.org.uk. 18 September 2004. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
- ^ "Fridge | Museu Coleção Berardo | Lisbon".
- ^ Tate. "Clive Barker born 1940 - Tate". tate.org.uk. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
- ^ "National Portrait Gallery - Person - Clive Barker". Npg.org.uk. 3 May 1994. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
- ^ Pop art U.S./U.K.connections,1956-1966. Houston Menil Collection Ostfilden-Ruit Hatje Cantz Verlag. 2001. ISBN 9783775710237.
- ^ "POP ART UK — Galleria Civica". www.comune.modena.it. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
- ^ "British Pop - exposiciones - Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao". museobilbao.com. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
- ^ Higgins, Tim. "Big bang: 'International Pop' exhibit at Philadelphia Museum of Art". mcall.com. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
- ^ "Clive Barker: Pop Art. 1961 – 1981. - Wolverhampton Arts & Culture". www.wolverhamptonart.org.uk. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
- ^ "Clive Barker Sculpture: Catalogue Raisonné 1958-2000 by Fermon, An Jo: Skira 9788884913807 Hardcover - Vital Products COM LLC". www.abebooks.co.uk. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
- ^ "Sculpture's glittering prizes: the sculpture of British Pop artist Clive Barker replicates functional, mass-produced objects in gleaming materials. His works recall Duchamp's notion of the 'ready-made' and highlight the beauty of every-day items, with a twist of humour. He talks to Apollo about his unconventional approach and why he still may turn to paint. - Free Online Library". Thefreelibrary.com. 1 January 2011. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
- ^ "Trivia". IMDb. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
