The last few months have seen interesting developments for Blackbird Rook and the Estate of Clyde Hopkins.
We were absolutely delighted that the Hepworth Collection acquired the painting ‘Seagulls, Brian Sewell, Kicking etc‘, 1992, by Clyde Hopkins. A special thank you to Marilyn Hallam, Andy Wicks and Simon Wallis for helping to make this happen.
Clyde Hopkins, Seagulls, Brian Sewell, Kicking etc, 1992, Oil on linen, 162 x 132 cm
From its foundation in 1923, the former Wakefield Art Gallery adopted an ambitious collecting policy with a core aim to nurture an understanding of contemporary art. The Hepworth Wakefield gallery was built in 2011 to house the city’s nationally important collection of modern and contemporary British art.
Works were acquired by the leading artists of the time, who have become synonymous with shaping modern British art. These include Hepworth’s ‘Mother and Child’ (1934) and Moore’s ‘Reclining Figure’ (1936) from an important period in the history of British art, during which many artists such as Paul Nash, Victor Pasmore and John Piper began to experiment with abstraction. Other leading British artists represented in the collection include Eileen Agar, David Bomberg, Roger Fry, Harold Gilman, Ben Nicholson, Patrick Heron, Lucie Rie and William Scott.
The painting was exhibited in Castor Gallery’s survey of Hopkins’ work ‘Paintings 1989 - 1993’ earlier this year.
Blackbird Rook opened its first credited physical gallery show last week -
in collaboration with The Good Ship Presents and the Yorkshire Art Space in their new gallery in Sheffield.
A PLAYGROUND IN THE FACTORY
PAUL HOUSLEY
10th November - 3rd December 2023
Persistence Works, 21 Brown Street, Sheffield S1 2BS. Thur. – Sat., 11 – 4pm
Watching Ships Go By, 2023, Oil on canvas, 60 × 50 cm
A Playground in the Factory, is Housley's first exhibition in Sheffield for over 20 years. Deep in the formalities of oil paint, Paul's work refracts his world and those phenomena that catch his eye. His expressive canvases capture low-key subject matter on a humble scale – most recently, the contents of his studio.
“Characters, places and memories inhabit the studio, it’s a place of constant flux. Ideas and motifs, new possibilities and dead ends, the studio contains them all, it’s simply a race against the clock to unearth as many as I can.
I was good at two things at school, staring out the window and watching the clock. In actuality, there was a third: drawing, which was a bit like doing both those things at once. Time and daydreaming, work and play, chaos and discipline. These are the things that have shaped my existence.
Art became my way of navigating life. I didn’t want a job but I got a job, I became an Artist, which didn’t seem like a job at all, but ended up an all consuming project with ridiculous long badly paid hours. From school to art school to studio I built my own factory in my own playground and a lazy boy became a work obsessive, but it had to be my work and my play.”
Summer Studio, 2023, Oil on canvas, 70 × 50 cm
Weapons of Choice, 2023, Oil on canvas, 80 × 60 cm
Paul Housley (b.1964, Stalybridge, UK), graduated with a BA in Fine Art at Sheffield City Polytechnic in 1986, and a MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art in 1995, and currently lives and works in London. He has exhibited at the Peter Bergman Gallery (Stockholm), White Columns (New York), Andrea Rosen Gallery (New York), Belmacz (London) and Poppy Sebire Gallery (London). Housley’s work has been printed in numerous publications including Artforum, Modern Painters, Frieze, The Independent, The Guardian, and ArtSlant.
Yorkshire Artspace (est. 1977) is a centre for creative production, providing high quality affordable studio space for 170 of the finest artists and makers in the region, across two sites in Sheffield city centre. Its flagship Persistence Works building, the first purpose-built studio complex in the UK, is home to a newly refurbished gallery space, available for hire.
The Good Ship Presents is a floating gallery affiliated with Yorkshire Artspace.
Blackbird Rook is a nomadic gallery, curating exhibitions of contemporary art from both established and emerging artists.
