Denis Bowen

Denis Bowen (born April 5, 1921 in Kimberley South Africa , † March 23, 2006 ) was an informal painter. In 1956 he was instrumental in founding the New Vision Center Gallery , which soon became one of the most important addresses for young art in London and played a key role in the exchange with other European countries.

Life

Denis Bowen graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1946 and founded the “New Vision Group” in 1951, which would later become the New Vision Center Gallery. He has been a professor at several universities around the world and his works are part of public and private collections, including the prestigious London Tate Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum . He was one of the English painters of the post-war period who dedicated himself to abstract art. Already during his school days he admired constructivist object works by Ben Nicholson and felt connected to artists of the Penwith Society of Artists in St. Ives (Cornwall). He started with abstract color compositions, but did not become a consistent tachist because he was too attached to a constructivist framework . Bowens worked with John Coplans, a co-founder of Artforum .

plant

In April 1957 the Redfern Gallery London organized an exhibition ´metavisual painting´ and presented a new school to the public. Denis Bowen took part with a greatly reduced color image, allowing brownish-black lacquer paint to flow or spill over a silver background. A year later Denis Bowen founded his own gallery together with artist friends and named it "New Vision Center Gallery". Here Joachim Reinke, employee of the Dagmar Wirth gallery, saw these new works and arranged an exhibition exchange between the two galleries. Günter Wirth added several works to his collection and often showed them in group exhibitions.

literature

Metavisual, tachist. Abstract. Painting in England To-Day , exhibition cat. Redfern Gallery, London 1957.
New Vision 56-66 (Ed. Margaret Garlake), Jarrow 1984.
Named in Will Grohmann: Neue Kunst nach 1945. Verlag M. DuMont Schaumberg, Cologne 1958, p. 244.

Web links

Link to the Tate Gallery page

Individual evidence

↑ Victoria and Albert Museum, Lionel Lambourne, Jean Hamilton: British watercolors in the Victoria and Albert Museum: an illustrated summary catalog of the national collection . Ed .: Lionel Lambourne, Jean Hamilton. Sotheby Parke Bernet, London 1980, ISBN 0-85667-111-8 , pp. 34 (English, 455 p., Limited preview in Google Book Search).
^ Warrington Colescott, Arthur Hove: Progressive Printmakers: Wisconsin Artists and the Print Renaissance . University of Wisconsin Press, Madison 1999, ISBN 0-299-16110-2 , pp. 130 (English, 221 pp., Limited preview in Google Book Search - state government publication).

personal data
SURNAME	Bowen, Denis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	British metavisual painter
DATE OF BIRTH	April 5, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH	Kimberley South Africa
DATE OF DEATH	March 23, 2006

[1] Victoria and Albert Museum, Lionel Lambourne, Jean Hamilton: British watercolors in the Victoria and Albert Museum: an illustrated summary catalog of the national collection . Ed .: Lionel Lambourne, Jean Hamilton. Sotheby Parke Bernet, London 1980, ISBN 0-85667-111-8 , pp. 34 (English, 455 p., Limited preview in Google Book Search).

[2] Warrington Colescott, Arthur Hove: Progressive Printmakers: Wisconsin Artists and the Print Renaissance . University of Wisconsin Press, Madison 1999, ISBN 0-299-16110-2 , pp. 130 (English, 221 pp., Limited preview in Google Book Search - state government publication).