Modern Art Oxford: Rose Finn-Kelcey

Last week I visited Modern Art Oxford to see Life, Belief and Beyond, the first posthumous exhibition of works by the highly acclaimed and influential artist Rose Finn-Kelcey (1945–2014). 'Life, Belief and Beyond focuses on Finn-Kelcey’s explorations of power, performance, political commentary, and perceptions of the self, belief and spirituality.

The exhibition presents works from the early 1970s to 2014, including Divided Self (Speaker’s Corner), 1974; The Restless Image: a discrepancy between the seen position and the felt position, 1975; Glory, 1983; Bureau de Change, 1987; and It Pays to Pray, 1999. These examples of Finn-Kelcey’s diverse and exacting practice are presented alongside photographs, collage, performance documentation, sketches in progress and preparatory material – never before exhibited.

Finn-Kelcey’s work is conceptually powerful, profound and is characterised by a dry wit that belies the formidable intelligence and deep humanity that drove her practice. A central figure in the performance and feminist art scene in Britain for over four decades, her work is intimately concerned with social dialogue, populism, activism, and how these tools of communication intersect with complex systems of power.

Finn-Kelcey’s far-reaching influence on conceptual art in the 1970s and ‘80s extended locally, to the generation of YBAs (Young British Artists) in the ’90s as she began to realise large-scale and technically complex installations.

Avant-garde in her ideas both in art and politics, Finn-Kelcey’s endlessly inventive practice demonstrates the artist’s interest in creating socio-political statements with a visually arresting quality, often object-based, frequently combining her creative investigations with contemporary technologies.'

'Since her death, Finn-Kelcey’s work has been the subject of increasing attention, as the themes she was concerned with have re-entered the public consciousness: feminism, spirituality, commodity culture and individual empowerment, to name a few.'

'Life, Belief and Beyond is a celebration of Finn-Kelcey’s work and pays tribute to her extraordinary practice and influence.'

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Squeeze - Labelled With Love.

Collecting modern & contemporary art

Fascinating contrasts in collecting were on show tonight during the Artist's evening held at the Wallspace Gallery.

The current gallery exhibition shows highlights from the Methodist Collection of modern and cotemporary art. This collection was established in the early 1960s by John Gibbs, an art collector and Methodist layman, who found the artistic quality of much 'religious art' and church furnishings very poor. He created a touring collection of work by contemporary artists exploring themes from the life of Christ to encourage a more imaginative approach to the commissioning and buying of paintings, sculpture and church furnishings. Gibbs invited the Rev. Douglas Wollen to create the Collection and gave him a largely free hand to decide the nature of the Collection and the artists and works to be included.

Similar freedom was given to Stuart Evans, who spoke during the evening on 'Obsessive Collecting', by the law firm Simmons & Simmons, of which he was a partner, in building up their collection of contemporary art primarily focussed on the YBA's. At the time, for a company to collect art by seeking out work early in the careers of contemporary artists was to break new ground and led to Evans building friendships with many of the artists whose work he collected, both corporately and privately. Simmons & Simmons differentiated themselves in their market by collecting contemporary art and their collection brought potential clients to the company. Evans emphasised that, although art collecting is not necessarily a great investment strategy, he is not embarrassed by the commercial side of the collections including his most recent work, together with a club of 12 members each investing in the venture, the Lodeveans Collection which is focussed on modern and contemporary Latin American art.

Although the Methodist Collection has returned in more recent years to a practice of buying and commissioning new work, it has remained primarily within the parameters of figurative work relating to the life of Christ. Therefore, there is little connection between the artists and the styles of work in the Methodist Collection and the collections which Stuart Evans has built. While there is undoubtedly room for and value in both, the contrast raises the question as to whether Church commissions of artworks are genuinely contemporary or actually reflect the tastes and styles of earlier generations.

This question may be answered by the autumn exhibition at Wallspace which will examine contemporary Church commissions.

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Television - Guiding Light.