Synopsis
More than 30 years after his groundbreaking exhibition at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts, Conrad Atkinson is rightly regarded as one of Britain's most important living political artists. Landescapes, the first of a complete series on Atkinson's oeuvre, reviews work relating specifically to the land, and is published in response to the inclusion of Atkinson's early masterwork, "For Wordsworth, For West Cumbria," in the Tate Gallery's recent exhibition, A Picture of Britain, where the work was given central placement. The book includes an essay by Richard Cork, chief art critic of the London Times, an interview with Antony Hudek of the Courtauld Institute, and original writings by the artist. Represented in New York by the Ronald Feldman Gallery, Atkinson is also a Professor of Art at the University of California at Davis.
Review
Conrad Atkinson is a British-born artist (b. 1940, Cumbria) who has lived and worked mainly in the United States since the 1980s Although he has held exhibitions in commercial private galleries his main impact has been via shows in public galleries and places. His art is significant for its emphasis on content economic, ecological, social and political issues, human exploitation, inequality and suffering and his willingness to use any technique and medium (and combinations of media)--painting, texts, photographs, posters, newspapers, wallpaper, prints, films, ceramics, installations, and so on that will serve his purposes. This attractive and well-illustrated paperback has been designed and published by an American graphic design company John Isaacs Design that is currently specialising in art books and catalogues, and it was subsidised by Atkinson's long-term New York art dealer Ronald Feldman. The book's central theme is Atkinson's reflections on land and landscape, on the material reality of the earth, the uses to which human beings have put it, plus the subjective human responses to it via paintings, poems and corporate images. Reproduced in colour are 54 works produced between 1959 and 2005. The book contains a historical essay by the English art critic Richard Cork which provides a vivid account of Atkinson's working-class childhood in Cumbria, his six years of training in various art schools, and his early, documentary-style exhibitions Strike at Brannans (London, ICA, 1972), Work, Wages and Prices (London, ICA, 1974) and A Shade of Green, An Orange Edge (Belfast, Arts Council gallery, 1975). There is also an interview dating from 2002, conducted by Antony Hudek, then a PhD student at the Courtauld, while Atkinson was Distinguished Visiting Professor there. The interview concerns the artist's reactions to the Institute's art collection, which includes religious paintings depicting mutilation and wounds. In part, Atkinson's response consisted of sardonic ceramics in the shape of landmines with images of wounds and rural scenes on their surfaces. There are also two short essays by Atkinson himself about his interest in, and artistic responses to, William Wordsworth's poetry celebrating the Lake District and his own memories of the more industrial landscape of Cleator Moor. This section illustrates several of the artist's portraits of the poet dating from 2003 in the form of oil pastel and inkjet prints. Atkinson writes fluently and his essay Common sights is itself quite poetic. The second essay, Suit , is a semi-humorous account of a dark wool suit embroidered in gold with images of insects that was supposedly worn by Wordsworth. Reproduced also are poems using imagery from Wordsworth and decorated with images of insects, written jointly by Atkinson and the rapper Eminem. The DVD included with the book reproduces Atkinson's 1970 film about the Industrial Relations Bill. Although this paperback is a handsome addition to the literature on Atkinson, it is somewhat brief and fragmentary. Its limitations highlight the need for a much more substantial and comprehensive monograph that does justice to the extensive oeuvre of an exceptionally innovative, passionate, committed and thoughtful artist and teacher. --The Art Book
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