Tuesday, 30 April 2013


The Nature of Women:
Agnes Martin, Aurelie Nemours, Lisa Corinne Davis, Marischa Burckhardt, Sylvia Heider and Anne Appleby.
5 June - 26 July 2013


Work by six abstract female artists will be brought together for the Mayor Gallery's final exhibition in its Cork Street premises.

When Fred Mayor opened the doors to The Mayor Gallery in London's now celebrated art street in 1925, it was with a show of work by six male artists that included Picasso, Herbin and Dufy, shortly followed by Léger, Metzinger and Gris. The Nature of Women, 88 years on, seems a fitting response to close the circle.

Although the artists in this exhibition all show a meticulous and methodical approach to their making, their works generate freewheeling emotion.  With Agnes Martin (1912-2004) at the centre of the group, they are united by a sensibility to intensely experienced light and colour.

Martin became one of the key abstract painters of the twentieth century.  Her minimalist works, with delicate lines in pencil or slim bands of colour that almost appear to levitate from the canvas, have earned her a unique position in the abstract expressionist canon.  George Baselitz, who recently (February 2013) spoke out against women artists - "Women don't paint very well. It's a fact ...", conceded there Martin was one of the few exceptions to this rule.

The work of French artist Aurélie Nemours (1910-2005) is often framed within the context of her contemporary Agnes Martin.  Nemours' strongly geometric works are vibrant and colourful with determined black lines.

Although coming to art later in life, Marischa Burckhardt built up an impressive body of work during the seventies.  She uses collage, fabric, paint and photography to explore an affinity with nature and light, reflected in a combination of vibrant and muted golden hues. During a residency with the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, she drew inspirational from Aboriginal art, constructing sand paintings and installations of found objects.

African-American artist Lisa Corinne Davis creates visually complex and deeply narrative works through layered collages. Using found material such as maps, newspaper articles, and small increments of paint, hand drawings and fingerprints, Davis creates frenetic canvases, using the grid as backbone of her urban landscapes. Davis comments "I have relied heavily on the grid as a structure but more recently loosening the grip, modifying it, as Martin had done, in working by hand.  Many of my gridded or measured lines are also done by hand to find the tension between the measured, rational and the felt, subjective."

The influence of Agnes Martin is again evident in the work of Austrian artist Sylvia Heider who creates strong, geometric, metal relief wall sculptures, enclosing abstract forms in massive knotted wooden frames.  Her works are made with the consciousness of the effect of light glancing off the metal, again showing an awareness and appreciation of natural forces.

Nature is also at the heart of Anne Appleby's monochromatic works: "they are a highly compressed notation of landscape experiences", says critic Kenneth Baker.  Minute graduation and luminous distillation of colour - "a chromatic ambiguity" - reflects her appreciation of the impact of subtle tonal shifts. For example the complexities of a Sweet Pea are manifested as a quadriptych of colours, an intensely observed response to nature. Her work is informed by her native American heritage and each piece has a simple, naturalistic title.

The influence of Agnes Martin is evident throughout this exhibition, from the strong and varied use of geometric forms in the work of Nemours, Burckhardt, Heider and Appleby, to the grid technique in Davis' abstract landscapes.  The Mayor Gallery was the first to show Agnes Martin in Europe (the artist was a Canadian born American citizen), giving her a solo exhibition in 1974.  Five works on paper from the 1950's and two canvases from 1974 will be included in The Nature of Women.

For further information please contact Pauline at Theresa Simon & Partners pauline@theresasimon.com 020 7734 4800


The Nature of Women
5 June - 26 July 2013

Mayor Gallery
22A Cork Street
London
W1S 3NA

Tel:     +44 (0)20 7734 3558
Fax:    +44 (0)20 7494 1377

Opening Hours:
Monday - Friday | 10am - 5.30pm
Saturday | 12 - 3pm

Notes for editors
The Mayor Gallery has consistently held solo exhibitions for leading female artists, including: Eva Hesse, Sylvia Plath, Dadamaino, Jann Haworth, Pauline Boty and Evelyn Axell.

The Mayor Gallery was the first to open its doors on London's famous art street, Cork Street. Founded by Fred Mayor in 1925, it was the first in Britain to exhibit, among others, Bacon, Calder, Klee, Miro and Paolozzi.  Since the 70s, the gallery has shown the work of leading American artists such as Lichtenstein, Oldenburg, Rauschenberg and Warhol and it remains London's foremost gallery for Zero Art and Surrealism.

The Mayor gallery will announce their new home shortly.


22A Cork Street
London
W1S 3NA
020 7734 3558

http://www.mayorgallery.com