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Harlequin Gallery |
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Denis
Bowen (1921
-2006) |
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Denis Bowen
was born in South Africa in 1921, but from his early childhood was brought up
in the north of England. He attended Huddersfield School of Art but his
education was put on hold while he spent 6 years during the Second World War
in the Royal Navy. Afterwards he studied at the Royal College of Art and
later held various teaching posts, including Hammersmith, the Central, the
RCA and Hornsey before becoming Visiting Professor at Victoria University,
Canada at the end of the 1960's. In the 1950's he was one of the foremost Tachiste experimental
painters in this country and together with Avray Wilson and Halima Nalecz he
founded the New Vision Centre Gallery. This became the centre of avant-garde
art from all over Europe from 1956 until its closure in 1966. Denis has had numerous one-man shows in the UK and abroad since
the mid-Fifties and is represented in many public collections worldwide,
including ones in USA, Australia, Israel, Italy and Canada. In the UK, the Tate Gallery recently purchased 3 examples of work
by Denis and he is also represented in the V&A and British Museum
collections, as well as many provincial public galleries. A major retrospective "Denis Bowen - 50 years on" was
held at Huddersfield Art Gallery in 1989. Since then Denis has continued to
experiment and develop as, hopefully, the work available at the Harlequin
Gallery will testify. Besides exhibiting at the Harlequin Gallery and St.
Ives during the last few years, Denis has also had a successful one-man show
in Sofia, Bulgaria and in 2003 took part in the World Calligraphy Biennale in
South Korea. In 2001 a retrospective exhibition of Denis's work was held in
London to mark the publication of the book "Denis Bowen" by the
acclaimed author and critic, Peter Davies. More recently a two-page article
appeared in the Observer (Sunday 6th June 2004) in which Denis Bowen appeared
alongside four other artists who were “crucial figures” in British art during
the 1960s. Hopefully, the publicity gained from these will reawaken the art
buying public in the UK to this important artist, but sadly Denis will not be
around to see this happen as he passed away in March 2006. The Harlequin Gallery held an exhibition “Denis
Bowen – His Last Paintings” in Denis’s memory from 4th to 25th June 2006.
Some of these are still available and details can be seen by clicking here.
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