Saunders

DAVID SAUNDERS
Born 1936, Essex, UK
Lives in Tarascon-sur-Ariège, France
David Saunders was a founder member in 1969, with Jeffrey Steele and Malcolm Hughes, of the Systems Group. The artists in the Systems Group shared an interest in logical and mathematical processes, a sharing of information, the unity of ethics and aesthetics and logic and the rejection of individualistic expressionism. In 1972 an important exhibition entitled “Systems” opened at the Whitechapel Gallery in London and toured public venues in the UK. Saunders was a leading thinker within the group. His own work is distinguished by a belief that we no longer see art as isolated discrete objects, but as a field of overlapping and connected cyclic processes, as forms oscillating between the determinate and the indeterminate, and between the abstract and the real. He insists that complex mental activity can be generated by a collection of signs even if the observer is totally unaware of the ‘code’ according to which they have been assembled. The ‘code’ should however, remain rational and decipherable.
Saunders continues to make compelling paintings in the “Systems” mode, but his work of the last ten years has moved away from geometrical abstraction towards an exploration of calligraphy and chance.
Selected one – person exhibitions
La Galerie at The Lycée Gabriel Fauré, Foix 2014
Mummery-Schnelle Gallery, London
Art Rotterdam Biennale, Netherlands 2008
La Galerie, Foix 2003
Forum Konkrete Kunst, Erfurt 2002
Dean Clough Galleries, Halifax
SEVEN SEVEN, Gallery, London 1995
Avivson Fine Art, London 1983
South Square Gallery, Thornton 1980
Liverpool Academy 1979
Sally East Gallery, London 1974
Lucy Milton Gallery, London
Bluecoats Gallery, Liverpool 1970
Gardner Centre Gallery, University of Sussex 1967
Bristol Arts Centre 1965
A.I.A. Gallery, London
Selected group exhibitions
2018 ‘Transforming Surfaces’ Arthouse 1, London.
2017 ‘Ground, Rules, Paintings: a Quartet’. Galerie Lycée Gabriel Fauré, Foix
2016-17’Systems 1972’Tate Britain, London.
2015 New Art Projects, London
2014 ‘Conversations with Marlow Moss’, Ampersand Model, Leeds, UK
2011 ‘Homage to the Founding Generation’ Institut für neue technische Form, Darmstadt
2009 ‘Walking 2’ La Galerie, Foix ‘Homage to the Founding Generation’Forum Konkrete Kunst, Erfurt
2008 ‘A Rational Aesthetic’ Southampton City Art Gallery
2007 ‘Wunderkamer’ Galerie St. Johann, Saarbrücken
2006 ‘The Stars Down to Earth’ The Nunnery, London
2004 Multiple Grafik und Objecte, Galerie St. Johann, Saarbrücken
2003 ‘Ten 10 Zehn’ Forum Konkrete Kunst, Erfurt
2002
‘25+25’ Galerie St. Johann, Saarbrücken
‘Serious Pleasure’, Centro Modigliani, Florence
Contemporary Art Society ‘ARTfutures’, City of London School
‘Eyes and Ears and Ears and Eyes’, The Nunnery, London
2000
‘The Wreck of Hope’ The Nunnery, London
Contemporary Art Society ‘ARTfutures’, The Barbican Centre, London
Saunders, Bonnefoi, Pinceman et. al., Galerie le Carré, Lille,
1999 ‘Painting and Time, The Nunnery, London
1998 ‘Grossbritanien, Konstructive-Konkret’ Forum Konkrete Kunst, Erfurt
1996 ‘Ten Artists from the British Isles’, JNJ Gallery, Prague
1995 ‘Mostyn Open 5’, Oriel Mostyn, LLandudno
1993 ‘A Different Contexture’ (David Saunders and Jagjit Chuhan), Acorn Gallery, Liverpool
1992 ‘Mostyn Open 4’, Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno
1990 ‘1000 Cubic Centimetres’, Wilhelm Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen
‘Blank Page 3’ Black Bull Gallery, London
‘Mostyn Open 2’, Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno
1989 ‘Complexions’ (David Saunders, Nichole Charlette and Richard Bell) Dean Clough Galleries, Halifax and Galerie
1987 ‘1000 Cubic Centimetres – Geometrical Miniatures’, Galerie de Sluis, Leidschendam
1986 ‘Colour Presentations’, Gardner Centre Gallery, University of Sussex, Stoke on Trent City Museum, Spacex
Gallery, Exeter
‘Colour Constructions’, Exhibiting Space, London
‘Systematic and Constructivist Drawings’, Wentworth Gallery, University of York
1983 ‘Four British Constructivists’ Engstrom Gallery, Stockholm
1980 ‘Artists’ Books’, Galerie Lydia Megert, Berne
1979 Cleveland International Drawing Bienale.
1978 ‘Rational Practice’, Gardner Centre Gallery, University of Sussex
1976 ‘English and Dutch rational Drawings’, Galerie de Volle Maan, Delft
‘Rational Concepts’, Kunstcentrum het Badhuis, Gorinchem
‘British Constructivists’ Kunstsammlung, Gelsenkirchen
1975 ‘Ways of Making’ Chapter, Cardiff and Arts Council tour Art ‘75 Basle
1974 IKI ‘74, Düsseldorf
1973 ‘Themes and Variations’, ICA, London
1972-3 ‘Systems’, Whitechapel Gallery, London and Arts Council tour
1970 ‘Matrix’, Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol
1969 ‘Systems’, Amos Anderson Museum, Helsinki
‘Art in Wales, the 20th Century’, National Museum of Wales
1967 ‘Survey ‘67- Abstract Painting’, Camden Arts Centre, London
Edinburgh Festival Open 100 (prizewinner)
1966 ‘Undefined Situation’, Howard Roberts Gallery, Cardiff
1960 ‘Tomorrow’s Artists’, Grabowski Gallery, London
1959 ‘Young Contemporaries’, RBA Galleries, London
Selected collections
Tate Gallery, London
Southampton City Art Gallery
Arts Council of England
Arts Council of Wales
The British Library, London
Conoco -Philips Collection, Warwick
Dean Clough Collection, Halifax
Forum Konkrete Kunst, Erfurt
Gemeente Museum, The Hague
Logica PLC, London
Rijksmuseum Meermano, The Hague
Stamford University, USA
University of Sussex
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Selected bibliography
‘Transfiguring Surfaces’ Exhibition catalogue, Arthouse 1, 2018. Essay by Della Gooden
‘Deaf School’ Paul Du Noyer, Liverpool University Press 2013 pp. 40-1, 56, 64, 74, 232-1
‘Constructed Abstract Art in England – A Neglected Avant-Garde’, Alastair Grieve, Yale University Press 2005, p54
‘David Saunders: Complexions’, Exhibition catalogue, Dean Clough Galleries, 2002. Essay by David Ryan
‘Schriftenreihe 4’, 2001, ‘Malerie und Zeit’, Forum Konkrete Kunst, Erfurt, pp. 33-36
‘Art Monthly’, May 2000, exhibition review, ‘The Wreck of Hope’, p. 42
‘Photogenic Painting’, Gilles Deleuze and Michel Foucault, Introduction by Adrian Rifkin, Courtauld, London 1999, pp. 33 – 34
‘Handbook of Modern British Painting and Printmaking,1900 – 1990’, second edition 1998, p.273
‘Blank Page’ Issue no. 3 London 1989
‘Studio International’ November – December 1976, ‘Art and Experimental Music’ edition, p.299
‘Studio International’ May 1972, interview on Arts Council ‘Systems’ exhibition, Malcolm Hughes, pp. 200 – 203
‘Systems’, Arts Council exhibition catalogue 1972. Texts by Stephen Bann and the artist. pp. 13, 40 – 42
‘Studio International’ May 1970, exhibition commentary. p.237
‘Studio International’ September 1969, exhibition review, Terry Measham p. 87
Tate Gallery:
https://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999961&workid=94004&searchid=16409
Art UK Collections:
https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/view_as/grid/search/makers:david-saunders-b1936#1960 ‘Tomorrow’s Artists’, Grabowski Gallery, London
1959 ‘Young Contemporaries’, RBA Galleries, London
Selected collections
Tate Gallery, London
Southampton City Art Gallery
Arts Council of England
Arts Council of Wales
The British Library, London
Conoco -Philips Collection, Warwick
Dean Clough Collection, Halifax
Forum Konkrete Kunst, Erfurt
Gemeente Museum, The Hague
Logica PLC, London
Rijksmuseum Meermano, The Hague
Stamford University, USA
University of Sussex
Victoria and Albert Museum, London