Mark Lancaster 1938-2021

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Lancaster's name is wedded to the mythology of the 1960s and 1970s, his story interwoven with those of some of the most renowned cultural figures of the era. Lancaster inhabited many worlds, and the extensive list of his friends and collaborators includes such luminaries as the artists Richard Hamilton, David Hockney, Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol, and the dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham.

Active for three decades from the early 1960s onwards, Lancaster worked most often in series, each group of paintings informed, conceptually and stylistically, by those that preceded them. Over the years, his work gradually changed, from the highly controlled hard-edged abstraction of his earliest work as a professional artist, to gestural paintings in which there is a constant negotiation between the abstract and the figurative.

This first posthumous exhibition includes works from each of the artist's major series of paintings. It reveals him as a significant artist of great intelligence and sensitivity.

Accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with an essay by Ian Massey.

Private View: 4 April, 2023, 6-8pm

Please contact the gallery to RSVP

Mark Lancaster CV

Born Holmfirth, Yorkshire, 14th May 1938; died Miami, Florida, 30th April 2021

Studied Fine Art at Newcastle under Richard Hamilton, 1961-1965
First visit to New York, July 1964
Lecturer in Painting, Bath Academy of Art, 1967-1968
Artist in Residence, King’s College, Cambridge, 1968-1970
Secretary to Jasper Johns, New York, 1972-1984
Designer for Merce Cunningham Company, 1975-1993

Selected solo exhibitions:
Rowan Gallery, London, 1965; 1967; 1969; 1970; 1971; 1973; 1975; 1980
Arts Council Gallery, Cambridge, 1970
Park Square Gallery, Leeds, 1970
School of Design, Harvard University, 1970
Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, 1972; 1974
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 1973
Arnolfini, Bristol, 1976
Mayor Rowan Gallery, London, 1988; 1990

Selected group exhibitions:
Young Contemporaries, London, 1963
The New Generation, Whitechapel Gallery, London, 1966
Young British Artists, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1968
Marks on a Canvas, Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund, 1969
British Painting and Sculpture, 1960-70, National Gallery, Washington DC, 1970
British Painting ’74, Hayward Gallery, London, 1974
Pop Art Is:, Gagosian, London, 2007

Collections include:
The Arts Council
Bradford Art Gallery
The British Council
Government Art Collection
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon King’s College, Cambridge
Kirklees Museums and Galleries
Leeds Art Gallery
Leicestershire County Council
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Pallant House Gallery, Chichester
Swindon Museum and Art Gallery
Tate
Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
The Whitworth, Manchester
Victoria and Albert Museum, London