Atkinson climbs into the ring with Tyson
Last updated 05:47, Friday, 19 September 2008
Cumbria’s two greatest living artists came face to face at the launch of a major new exhibition at Tullie House Museum Art Gallery.
Conrad Atkinson, emeritus professor of art at the University of California, whose work can be seen at the British Museum, the V&A and MoMA New York, officially opened the new show by Turner Prize-winner Keith Tyson last night and the exhibition opens to the public tomorrow. Both men studied at Carlisle College of Art. Atkinson said: “Keith’s work is incredible. He is a really great artist and I was very excited to be invited to open the exhibition.”
Nature Paintings includes more than 20 works of art by the Ulverston-born painter, none of them previously shown in the UK. Produced by pouring paints and chemicals onto aluminium or glass surfaces, the paintings depart from traditional methods of representing nature.
Tyson said: “I’m interested in putting a conundrum on the wall, something that resonates and asks questions. I just don’t have a cerebral manifesto of what I’m doing.
“I’ve always maintained that when I don’t know what I’m doing my work is apt to be interesting and alive.”
Born in 1969, Keith Tyson studied at Carlisle College of Art and Barrow-in-Furness College of Engineering. His first major exhibition was at London’s Anthony Reynolds Gallery in 1995 and he has since shown across Europe and the USA. He won the £20,000 Turner Prize in 2002 with his exhibitions of Studio Wall Drawings and sculpture The Thinker (After Rodin). His work was shown at London’s Tate Britain in the 2007 exhibition Turner: A Retrospective.
A spokesman for Tullie House said: “Cumbrian artists of the highest quality are a priority, and Tullie House is especially keen to acquire a representative work by Keith Tyson – something we are actively working towards.”
In the long-term, the museum aims to secure funding for a contemporary art collection of national importance.
