ABSTRACT PAINTING NOW - Symposium at RWA, Bristol, Monday 4th February 2019 *EVENT NOW SOLD OUT*

Albert Irvin, Almada, 1985, acrylic on canvas, 213.4 x 304.8cm

RWA Collection. Accepted by HM Government in lieu of Inheritance Tax from the estates of Albert and Betty Irvin and allocated to the Royal West of England Academy, 2018. Photography by Colin White. Photo © RWA © The Albert Irvin Estate. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2018

** Please note this event is now sold out - no more tickets will be issued**

ABSTRACT PAINTING NOW: the relevance and status of non-figurative painting in contemporary art practice.

A one-day symposium, co-hosted by the University of Gloucestershire and the RWA (The Royal West of England Academy) will be held on Monday 4^th February 2019 at the RWA in Bristol.
The symposium is timed to coincide with the exhibition Albert Irvin and Abstract Expressionism (8 December 2018 – 3 March 2019). This exhibition, curated by RWA President Stewart Geddes is the first major retrospective of Albert Irvin, placed in tandem with a 60th anniversary celebration of the seminal exhibition, The New American Painting. 

The focus of the symposium will be on the current status of non-figurative painting, within contemporary art practice, considered against the background of the history delineated by the exhibition Albert Irvin and Abstract Expressionism. That is, from the high-water mark of American painting in the 1940s and 50s and its seminal influence on a generation of British artists, non-figurative painting has often been sustained against the grain of artworld fashion. Nevertheless, it continues to thrive.

The Symposium Programme

Date and time: Monday 4th February 2019, 10.00-16.30
Location: Royal West of England Academy, Queens Road, Bristol, BS8 1PX

Michael Tooby: Inextinguishable: contexts for the work of Albert Irvin (Keynote address)

Brendan Fletcher: Abstraction and Semiosis in the Paintings of Albert Irvin

Matthew Macaulay: Abstract Painters in Higher Education 1970-2000

Katrina Blannin: Patches: a dialogue between the concrete and the gesture in painting

Nadja Plein: The Intentional Brushstroke

Tom Palin: Pictures, Truths and Methods: From Function to Form in Abstract Painting

The event is now sold out - the links below have been disabled
 Tickets are available through University of Gloucestershire Online Store - click on links, below

 £30.00 - institutionally affiliated attendees

£20.00 - others

£15.00 - RWA members, students, unwaged

For further information, please contact Richard Salkeld rsalkeld@glos.ac.uk