About Kaleidoscope: Colour and Sequence in 1960s British Art
Shown together in this exhibition, these works create a visual feast of colour and form and look as fresh and dynamic as they did some 50 years ago.
- Jill Constantine, Arts Council Collection
Bringing together outstanding examples of painting and sculpture from the Arts Council Collection and other major UK collections, Kaleidoscope examined 1960s visual art through a fresh and surprising lens.
British art of the 1960s is often noted for its bold, artificial colour, alluring surfaces and capricious shapes and forms, yet these exuberant qualities are often underpinned by a clearly apparent order, founded on repetition, sequence and symmetry.
Kaleidoscope represented the work of over 20 artists including David Annesley, Anthony Caro, Robyn Denny, Tess Jaray, Phillip King, Kim Lim, Jeremy Moon, Mary Martin, Bridget Riley, Tim Scott, Richard Smith, William Tucker and William Turnbull. Curated with the writer and curator, Sam Cornish, the exhibition offered fresh insight into a period of British art which has attracted surprisingly little critical attention. Beyond its art historical significance, the idea of repetition and symmetry is immediately accessible to a wide audience. Together the works created a visually arresting display and a feast of colour and form in the gallery.
You may also like
- News
Tune Into Nature Music Prize reveals 2025 winner
3 March 2025 Laura Ellen Bacon: Into Being
–In the Chapel, discover Derbyshire-based Laura Ellen Bacon's exceptional immersive sculptural installation Into Being, created from natural materials.- Art Outdoors
Niki de Saint Phalle: Buddha
Niki de Saint Phalle began creating figurative works in the mid-1960s. In response to the pressures of domestic life as daughter, mother and wife, she created her iconic Nana figures. The colourful and voluptuous sculptural works are celebrations of the female form. These goddess-like figures continued as a form of expression throughout the artist’s life, and paralleled modern feminist efforts to reconsider and revalue the female body. - Art Outdoors
Matthew Darbyshire: Untitled (David)
With Untitled (David), Matthew Darbyshire combines the traditional sculpture techniques of carving and casting with 3D digital processes.