FIGURATIVE ART / URBAN REALISM oil paintings, lithographs, drawings, photographs |
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Summer storm V oil on canvas 170 x 220 cm |
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"THE PAINTER OF MODERN LIFE" The Realist Movement in France in the 19th century proposed that ordinary people and places should be painted with the same love and respect that former generations had lavished upon royalty, great events and mythological scenes. Seurat celebrated the lower middle class at leisure in his heroic 'Baignade' in the National Gallery in London. Degas painted women ironing clothes, combing their hair and washing themselves. Van Gogh celebrated local people, the postman, the doctor. Sickert frequented and painted London's music halls. This was a movement which brought art closer to common experience and seemed set to persist as a dominant form into the 20th century. The impact of photography: By the last decade of the 19th century, the camera could manage exposures fast enough to photograph moving subjects. Urban realism was abandoned by "mainstream" artists and became a principal theme in photography, cinema and more recently electronic media. Many artists and movements throughout the century and today, in various countries have sought to reclaim the city and Oliver Bevan 2005
Since writing these lines the scope of my painting has enormously expanded. There are landscapes, with or without figures, a love for water in all its forms, and running through everything, a passion for the myriad ways in which light reveals or disguises the world. A glance at my biographical details will reveal that my early career was dominated by Op and Geometric Art. Abstraction has never completely left me and I sense that the balance is shifting in that direction again. O.B June 2017 |
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Photo of Oliver Bevan by Annick Le Mée |
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NEWS
WINTER 2018-2019
Flickering Grid, a painting from 1965 in the collection of York Art Gallery is currently on view in an exhibition entitled "When all is quiet: Kaiser Chiefs in Conversation with York Art Gallery" until March 10th - see photos
As a follow up to the concept of exhibiting unshown works, which started last winter with the photographs, La Réserve invites you to come and see a selection of drawings,(chalk and pastel), which though complete in themselves, shed light on the creative process behind Oliver Bevan’s paintings.
The drawings and pastels exhibited can now be seen here
New paintings added to: Andalucia and Puddles pages
Video of two kinetic pieces “Crescendo“ and “Tunnelon“ on YouTube
THE RESERVE
1, rue Nicolas Froment - 30700 UZES, France
contact: Annick Le Mée tel:
mobile +33 (0)6 75 59 61 80
Oliver Bevan's stock of work dating back to the beginning of his career is stored here. In addition there is enough wall space to mount changing exhibitions based on this backlog, which can be viewed by appointment and on market days in Uzès, (Wednesda morning and all day Saturday). The space is managed by Annick Le Mée who curates the exhibitions.