Sandra Blow, R.A.

Gimpel Fils, London
Julian Hartnoll, London
Private Collection, U.K.
Offer Waterman & Co., London, where acquired by the previous owner, December 2004
Their sale, Christie's London, 21st June 2016, lot 119, where acquired by the present owner

London, Julian Hartnoll, Sandra Blow RA Joe Tilson RA Eight Works 1956-1967, 4th - 22nd March 1997, cat. no.2, illustrated n.p.

The board appears sound. There is some slight uneveness to the board around the edges, possibly in keeping with the Artist's materials. There is a very small loss towards the lower left vertical edge. There is light surface dirt and studio detritus in places. Subject to the above the work is in very good overall condition. Inspection under ultraviolet light reveals two small areas of retouching in the upper right quadrant near the right edge, and a few further small flecks of retouching in the lower right quadrant. There are some areas of fluorescence to the white pigment, which may be in keeping with the nature of the artist's materials and techniques. The work is held within a simple wood frame under glass. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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'I can remember that extraordinary sense of shredding everything, of leaving all the known tracks. And then just looking for something that could be my own, of interpreting the actual structure of painting which seemed to connect with abstract art - structure and space - and finding my own language in it' (Sandra Blow in conversation with Sarah O'Brien Twohig, Sandra Blow, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1994, p.33).

The British artistic landscape of the 1950s underwent considerable changes as the Neo-Romantic movement gave way to developments in abstraction. For this younger generation of artists, form was desired above any definable sense of representation, and in Sandra Blow's work in the 1950s, we see her own distinct and important contribution to the new British abstract movement. 

Blow contributed to the concerns with form through the very physical inclusion of unconventional materials. In the present work, a thick and coarse netting, roughly worked with plaster, radically explores ideas of three-dimensionality. This is further emphasised by contrasting the sacking with smoothly painted, thick stripes of oil. 

Blow's reinterpretation of collage in this manner was influenced by a year she spent in Italy in 1949. Whilst there, she formed a close friendship with Alberto Burri who was exploring the expressive potential of basic materials in works called sacchi. His process of constructing paintings from non-artistic materials such as earth, ash, cement and sacking appealed to Blow's highly developed feeling for texture and colour. Absorbing such techniques for her own end, she moved away from Burri's more delicate and refined execution of sacchi to emphasise further the physicality of the painting process, evident in the tactility of the present work. In her exploration of form during this period, Blow's paintings delight in the gestural handling of material, creating vigorous, energetic pieces which reveal her own very individual contribution to the post-war British artistic landscape.