John Stezaker
Encyclopedia
Overview
Stezaker attended the Slade School of Art in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in the 1960s. In the early 1970s he was among the first wave of British conceptual art
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
ists to react against what was then the predominance of Pop art
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
.
Solo exhibitions have been rare, however, in the mid-2000s, Stezaker's work was rediscovered by the art market; he is now collected by several international collectors and museums.
His work is surreal
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
in tone and is often made using collage
Collage
A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....
and the appropriation of pre-existing images such as postcards
Postcards
Postcards may mean:* The plural of postcard* Postcards , an Australian magazine television series* Postcards , a novel by E...
, film stills, and publicity photographs. Art historian Julian Stallabrass
Julian Stallabrass
Julian Stallabrass is a British art historian, photographer and curator. A Marxist, he has written extensively on contemporary art , photography and the history of twentieth century British art.-High Art Lite:...
said, "The contrast at the heart of these works [by Stezaker] is not between represented and real, but between the unknowing primitives of popular culture, and the conscious, ironic artist and viewer of post-modern images." One work included in an exhibition at Salama-Caro Gallery, London, in 1991, depicted an image of a punch clock
Time clock
A time clock, sometimes known as a clock card machine or punch clock or time recorder, is a mechanical timepiece used to assist in tracking the hours an employee of a company worked. In regards to mechanical time clocks this was accomplished by inserting a heavy paper card, called a timesheet,...
together with the caption "Why Spend Time On An Exhibition Like This?" Colin Gleadell wrote in The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
in 2007 that Stezaker "is now being hailed as a major influence on the Young British Art movement."
Until 2006, Stezaker was Senior Tutor in Critical and Historical Studies at the Royal College of Art
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...
in London. He is represented in London by The Approach Gallery
The Approach Gallery
The approach is a contemporary art gallery situated above a pub in Bethnal Green, London.-History:The gallery was founded in 1997 by Jake Miller, along with artists Damien Meade, Ana Genoves and others...
.
Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions2011
Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK [cat.], touring to Mudam, Luxembourg and Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, USA
2010
Capitain Petzel, Berlin, Germany
Kunstverein Freiburg, Germany
Tabula Rasa, The Approach, London, UK
2009
Richard Grey Gallery, Chicago, USA
Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne, Germany
Friedrich Petzel, New York, USA
2008
Masks & Shadows, A Palazzo Gallery, Brescia, Italy [cat]
Galerie Dennis Kimmerich, Düsseldorf, Germany
Fumetti, GAK- Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst Bremen, Germany [cat]
2007
Two part show: Marriages, Karsten Schubert (Sep-Nov), London, Masks, The Approach,
London, UK (Oct-Nov) [cat]
The Rubell Family Collection, Miami, USA [cat]
Stills Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland
Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, UK
Project Room, Yvon Lambert, Paris, France
2006
The Approach, London, UK
Galerie Dennis Kimmerich, Düsseldorf, Germany
Richard Telles Fine Art, Los Angeles, USA
Bridges and other Metaphors, Norwich Gallery, Norwich, UK
John Stezaker, White Columns, New York, USA
2005
Archiv & Erzählung [Archives and Narration]: John Stezaker and T.J. Wilcox, Kunstverein
Muenchen, Munich, Germany
2004
The Third Person Archive and other works, The Approach, London, UK
2001
The Holy Land Series, Wigmore Fine Art, London, UK
1999
Angels, Portfolio Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland
1996
Garden, Cubitt Gallery, London, UK
1991
Care & Control, Salama-Caro Gallery, London, UK
1990
Film Still Collages, Friedman-Guinness Gallery, Frankfurt, Germany [cat.]
1989
John Stezaker: New Work, Salama-Caro Gallery, London, UK [cat.]
Glenn Dash Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
1984
Lisson Gallery, London, UK
1979
Galerie Éric Fabre, Paris, France
Werke 1973-1978, Kuntsmueum Luzern, Kunstmuseum, Lucerne, CH [cat.]
Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK
The World Made Flesh, The New ‘57 Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland [cat.]
1978
Fragments, Photographer’s Gallery, London, UK [cat.]
Collages, 1977–1978, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK[cat.]
Southampton City Museum, Southampton, UK
1977
Dream Allegories. John Stezaker Collages 1976-1977. Nigel Greenwood Gallery, London,
UK [cat.]
Galerie Éric Fabre, Paris, France
Schema Gallery, Florence, Italy
Spectro Arts, Newcastle, UK
1976
Nigel Greenwood Gallery, London, UK
Trois Oeuvres [Three Works], Galerie Éric Fabre, Paris, France [cat.]
1975
Nigel Greenwood Gallery, London, UK
Galerie Éric Fabre, Paris, France
1974
Galerie Decembre, Munster, Germany
Galleria Lia Rumma, Rome, Italy
Galleria Lia Rumma, Naples, Italy
1973
The Museum of Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, UK
Nigel Greenwood Gallery, London, UK
1972
Beyond Art for Art’s Sake: a Propus Mundus, Nigel Greenwood Gallery, London,
UK[cat.]
1970
Works, 1969–1971, Sigi Krauss Gallery, London, UK [cat.]
Other sources
- Dawn Ades et al. (2011). John Stezaker. (London: RidinghouseRidinghouseRidinghouse is a company committed to publishing primary documents, art historical research, first monographs, anthologies of interviews and writings and editions. Established in 1995 by Karsten Schubert and Thomas Dane, the organisation has been rapidly expanding since 2004 and it currently...
) - John Stezaker: Publications
- John Stezaker. (2010).Tabula Rasa. (London: RidinghouseRidinghouseRidinghouse is a company committed to publishing primary documents, art historical research, first monographs, anthologies of interviews and writings and editions. Established in 1995 by Karsten Schubert and Thomas Dane, the organisation has been rapidly expanding since 2004 and it currently...
). - (2008). John Stezaker: Rubell Family Collection (Miami: Rubell Family Collection).
- (2008). Masks. (London: RidinghouseRidinghouseRidinghouse is a company committed to publishing primary documents, art historical research, first monographs, anthologies of interviews and writings and editions. Established in 1995 by Karsten Schubert and Thomas Dane, the organisation has been rapidly expanding since 2004 and it currently...
). - (2007). Marriage. (London: RidinghouseRidinghouseRidinghouse is a company committed to publishing primary documents, art historical research, first monographs, anthologies of interviews and writings and editions. Established in 1995 by Karsten Schubert and Thomas Dane, the organisation has been rapidly expanding since 2004 and it currently...
).
External links
- The approach: John Stezaker
- The Saatchi Gallery: John Stezaker
- Guardian: Artist of the week 72 (02/2010)
- Frieze: John Stezaker
- Interview with John Stezaker by Andrew Warstat : Parallax, Volume 16, Issue 2 May 2010 , pages 68 - 78
- Michael Newman on John Stezaker : Parallax, Volume 16, Issue 2 May 2010 , pages 79 - 86