POUSSIN GALLERY - Key Persons
Alan Gouk was born in Belfast in 1939, and originally studied architecture in Glasgow and London, before studying psychology and philosophy at Edinburgh University. From 1964 to 1967 he worked as an exhibitions officer at the British Council, helping to organise the British exhibition at the 1966 Venice Biennale, and making contact with many prominent artists of the time, notably Anthony Caro. In 1967 Gouk was a prizewinner at the John Moores Liverpool exhibition, and he also began at this time a long and inspirational teaching career in the Sculpture Department of St. Martin's School of Art.
In the early Seventies, Gouk's work was included in shows at the Hayward Gallery, London, and the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, before being instrumental in establishing the painting and sculpture annual exhibitions at Stockwell Depot. He participated in "Four Abstract Painters" at the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh in 1977, and had an important show at the Woodlands Gallery, Greenwich (with Geoff Rigden) in 1982, but had to wait until 1987 for his first solo show in London, at Smith's Gallery. Also in 1987, Patrick Heron chose Gouk for "Artist for the Day" at Angela Flowers Gallery, and Gouk subsequently had solo shows at Flowers East in 1995, 1997, and 2001. He has also had solo London shows at Sandra Higgins Fine Art in 1990, and at East/West Gallery in 1994 and 2002. In 2002 Gouk was again a prizewinner at the John Moores Liverpool exhibition.
Throughout his career Gouk has written extensively about art and has been published widely. His painting is in numerous collections including the Tate Gallery, London; the Arts Council; the Scottish Arts Council; and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. He is widely admired and respected as a pre-eminent abstract painter, and he has consistently produced work of exceptional quality which explores the architecture of painting through colour and form.
"Principle, Appearance, Style", a 195 page full colour monograph on the work of Alan Gouk, with a perceptive text constructed by Mel Gooding, is available from Poussin Gallery. Please email for details.
Anne Smart was born in Yorkshire in 1951. She studied sculpture at St. Martin's School of Art in the Seventies, started painting in 1978, and following a period in NE Scotland, now lives and works in Norfolk. Her work is in a number of private collections, and since 1995 she has run independent teaching classes in abstract painting.
C. Morey de Morand was born in Paris of French and White Russian parents. Originally trained as a scientist (lecturing in Pharmacognosy - the study of medicines of plant and animal origin), she studied art in Canada and New Zealand and has painted in London since the late 70's, exhibiting widely. Critic Clement Greenbserg and modernist architect Oscar Nitzchke (on whom she curated a retrospective exhibition) were important early mentors. She has exhibited widely, has received numerous awards, held a number of residencies and has work in international corporate and public collections including the National Gallery of New Zealand and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Douglas Abercrombie was born in 1934 in Glasgow, and studied at Glasgow School of Art. In 1956 he won an R.S.A. Carnegie Travelling Scholarship, and had his first solo show in Edinburgh in 1957. Various shows followed, in Winsor, London and Lippstadt, before in the Seventies exhibiting in London with artists at Stockwell Depot. In 1977 his work was included in "British Painting 1952 - 77" at the Royal Academy, and "Four Abstract Artists" at the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh. In 1980 Abercrombie was selected for "The New Generation: A Curators Choice" at the Andre Emmerich Gallery, New York. A Summer Show at the Serpentine Gallery, London, established his reputation as an exceptionally talented abstract painter with an original sense of colour and paint-handling.
In 1984 Abercrombie's work was chosen for the Hayward Annual, and he travelled to America to participate in the Triangle Workshop in Mashomack, New York State. He was awarded a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award in 1993, and his most recent solo show was at Deli-Art, London, in 2003. His work is in various public and private collections, including the Scottish Arts Council. Abercrombie lives and works in London and Scotland.
Frank Bowling was born in Guyana in 1936, emigrating to England in 1950, where he studied painting at the Royal College of Art. In 1966 he moved again, this time to New York, attracted by the esteem with which abstract painting, in which his interest was burgeoning, was held. His first solo show of abstract paintings was held in the city seven years later.
Through the seventies, coming into contact with many of the leading lights of New York's abstract art scene, his commitment to a formalist approach to art grew; a commitment that continues to develop to this day. Bowling, who was elected as an RA in 2005, currently divides his time between London and New York. His work is in many public and private collections, including the Tate, MOMA, and the Metropolitan.
Geoff Rigden was born in 1943 in Cheltenham, and studied at the Royal college of Art in London, where he now lives and works. He was a prizewinner at the John Moores Liverpool exhibition in 1965, selected by Patrick Heron, Clement Greenberg, and John Russell, and a Tolly Cobbold/Eastern Arts prizewinner in 1977. His work was shown at Stockwell Depot in the late Seventies, and was in the 1980 Hayward Annual selected by John Hoyland. A solo show at Spacex Gallery, Exeter in 1982 and the Air Gallery, London 1983, were followed by solo shows at the Francis Graham-Dixon Gallery in 1988, 1990, 1993, and 1995, and the Cross Street Gallery in 2000.
In 1990 Rigden's work was exhibited in "Colour in Modern Painting" at Stoke on Trent City Art Gallery, and was also included in "British Abstract Painting" at Flowers East in 2001, and Matthew Collings' "Art Crazy Nation" 2002. He was chosen by John McLean as "Artist for the Day" at Flowers Central in 2005. His work is in various public and private collections, including the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. In 1996 he received a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award.
Geoff Rigden has taught widely and with considerable influence. His deft and idiosyncratic approach to painting has been broadly admired and often imitated, and he has consistently brought a refined painterly intelligence to his work as his style has clarified.
Robin Greenwood was born in 1950 in Manchester, and for most of the time since 1968 has lived and worked in London. He was a student of Peter Kinley and Peter Startup at Wimbledon School of Art in the late Sixties, and then studied sculpture under Anthony Caro, Tim Scott and Alan Gouk at St.Martin's School of Art in the early Seventies. He taught sculpture at Wimbledon and St.Martin's up until 1984.
His first solo show of sculpture was at P.M.J.Self, Covent Garden, in 1975. He was a major Arts Council Award winner in 1978, selected by Bryan Robertson; showed constructed wood sculpture in a subsequent Arts Council Exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery in 1979; first showed steel sculpture in the Stockwell Depot Show of 1979; showed forged steel sculpture in "Sculpture From The Body" at the Tate in 1984, and in "New Sculpture From Britain" at the Conde Duce, Madrid in 1988; and had a first solo show of paintings at the Consort Gallery, Imperial College, London in 1993. In 2000 his architectural collaboration with Blauel Architects won the Blueprint Best New Residential Building Award. He is a founder/director of Poussin, and works as a sculptor, painter, and occasional writer. Essays can be found on this site and at abstractcritical.com, of which he is a co-founder/director.
John McLean was born in 1939, and grew up in Scotland. He has won several awards, including an Arts Council Major Award in 1980, has been guest artist at Emma Lake Workshop, and artist in residence at Edinburgh University. In a career spanning four decades he has brought an exceptional talent and intelligence to the pursuit of colour harmony and contrast in abstract painting, and he has become internationally recognised as one of the foremost abstract painters working now.
His numerous solo exhibitions began in 1975 at the Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, and have included shows with Nicola Jacobs Gallery and Kapil Jariwala, London, in the Eighties, and Francis Graham-Dixon Gallery, London, in the Nineties. More recently he has shown regularly with Flowers galleries in London and New York. He also shows with Bourne Fine Art, Edinburgh, and Art Placement, Saskatoon, Canada. His work is in numerous public, private, and corporate collections worldwide, including the Tate Gallery, London; the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art; Glasgow Museums and Art Galleries; the Hunterian Collection, Glasgow University; Edinburgh City Art Gallery; The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester; Southampton Art Gallery; Swindon Art Gallery; and the Macmanus Art Gallery, Dundee.
Vanessa Jackson was born in 1953 and lives and works in London. She was educated at St Martins School of Art 1971-75 and the Royal College of Art 1975-78. Between 1988 and 1997 she was Senior Lecturer and then Head of Painting at Winchester School of Art. She is now a tutor at the Royal College of Art and the Royal Academy Schools. She has exhibited widely in Britain and abroad, and has spent some time in the USA, in New York and two residencies as a Yaddo Fellow in Saratoga Springs. In 1995 she spent three months at the British School at Rome as an Abbey Fellow.
Recent solo shows have included Inside Space gallery, London 2002; Art Inc, New York 2003; and Keith Talent Gallery, London 2005. Vanessa Jackson is widely respected as a lecturer and energetic contributor to numerous art-world causes and committees, whose own powerful, colourful, and technically extraordinary paintings are now receiving the recognition they deserve.