Press Releases

Works of the 1960s from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s British Art Collection

8 June – 1 October 2010

The advent of pop culture in the United Kingdom influenced a whole generation beyond Britain, heralding significant cultural change and a break with convention in the visual arts.

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s Cultural Centre in Paris presents a journey through the 1960s in a new exhibition of works from the Foundation’s British art collection, which is based at its Centro de Arte Moderna (Modern Art Centre) in Lisbon.

Looking back nearly half a century, the sixties appear to be a golden age for British culture. The artistic explosion in London became synonymous with the spirit of renewal and the euphoria of that period. Pop culture emerged as a multifaceted interweaving of music, fashion, the visual arts, cinema, photography, literature and theatre, partly influenced by increasing interactions with American film, advertising and art, as well as by the political consciousness-raising evident in other European countries, but also defiantly home-grown. From the passion for the Beatles’ music to the irresistible attractiveness of Mary Quant mini-skirts, a society emerged excited by visions of mass consumption and increasingly liberated ethical values.

The exhibition As Dreamers Do offers a stimulating itinerary through the sixties – a decade of creative vitality in sculpture and painting, during which British artists rejected the forms of image-making that had emerged in post-war art and adopted a new more populist visual repertoire, subverting formal representations of the body, urban landscape and objects in space to create work that was bold, challenging and witty.

The 71 works in the exhibition, by 45 artists, include paintings, drawings, sculptures, and prints, all selected from CAM’s British art collection, one of the most remarkable collections of British art outside the United Kingdom. Most of the works in the collection came from those artists emerging from the vibrant creative scene in London during the late 1950s and early 1960s, contributing to the growing international reputation of British art through the second half of the 20th century. Among them were Richard Hamilton, Bridget Riley, Peter Blake, Richard Smith, Robyn Denny, Bernard Cohen, Gillian Ayres, Alan Davie, Derek Boshier or even Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossoff.

The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s Modern Art Centre (CAM) is based at the Foundation’s headquarters in Lisbon and houses the most significant collection of 20th century Portuguese art. Besides the works by Portuguese artists CAM holds nearly 450 British works collected since 1959. Among the most recent acquisitions are works by artists such as Gilbert & George or Richard Deacon. www.camjap.gulbenkian.pt

Curator:
Ana Vasconcelos e Melo | CAM

Exhibition catalogue:
Reproductions of all the works on display are included in a bilingual catalogue (French/English), as well as texts by Ana Vasconcelos e Melo, providing insight into the creative context of the sixties in Great Britain and the history of this outstanding collection.

LISTINGS INFORMATION
Exhibition: As Dreamers Do: Works of the 1960s from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s British Art Collection
Dates: 8 June to 1 October, 2010
Address: Centre Culturel Calouste Gulbenkian, 51, avenue d’Iéna, 75016 Paris
Transport: Etoile, Kléber or Iéna metro stations; bus 30, 31 or 92
Opening hours: Monday to Friday, from 9.00 am to 5.30 pm •
Saturday, from 1.00pm to 6.00pm (from June 19)
Information: 01 53 23 93 93 | www.gulbenkian-paris.org
Free entry

Press contact, Centre Culturel Calouste Gulbenkian, Paris (for information and photographs):
Jasmin Uhlig | jasmin.uhlig@gulbenkian-paris.org
T: 01 53 23 93 78 | M: 06 20 90 27 59

The Centre Culturel Calouste Gulbenkian – the French delegation of the Portuguese foundation with the same name – seeks, through its multiple and varied activities, to make Portuguese culture known in France and to participate in the major European debates. The private house of its founder, Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian (1869-1955) has been home to exhibitions, concerts, and shows, as well as international conferences and symposiums for over 40 years. The Centre also houses the most important documental centre in Europe, dedicated to Portugal and Portuguese-speaking countries, including over 90.000 works.

The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation is a Portuguese private institution created in 1956 to fulfil the wishes of its founder, Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian, a financier of British nationality and Armenian origin who lived in Lisbon from 1942 until his death in 1955. He was a pioneer in the oil industry and a major art collector. His private collection is presently gathered in the Gulbenkian Museum, inaugurated in Lisbon in 1969. The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation carries out varied activities in the fields of art (a museum, a modern art centre, an orchestra and a choir), heritage, education, health and science. www.gulbenkian.pt