University experts bring together rare work by leading British artist

University of Gloucestershire art experts have collaborated with the Royal West of England Academy (RWA) to present an extraordinary exhibition showcasing rare and unknown work by a prominent British abstract painter.

Olivia Bax, a lecturer in Fine Art within the University’s School of Creative Arts, co-curated the colourful and humorous selection of ceramic sculptures produced by the late John Hoyland on display at the RWA exhibition These Mad Hybrids: John Hoyland and Contemporary Sculpture.

Supported by research funding from the University’s School of Creative Arts, the exhibition is the first time the sculptures – described by John Hoyland as ‘these mad little hybrids’ – have been on public display since they were made in 1994.

The exhibition, which runs until 12 May, shines a light on the importance of sculptural ideas to John Hoyland’s abstract paintings, for which he is renowned. During the 1960s, his dynamic style drew a number of comparisons with the likes of US-based Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko.

The book that accompanies the exhibition, These Mad Hybrids: John Hoyland and Contemporary Culture (published by Slim Volume), features texts by Olivia Bax and James Fisher, also a lecturer in Fine Art at the University.

The book will be launched at These Mad Hybrids: Artists and Writers in Conversation at RWA on 21 March (6pm-8pm).

Olivia Bax encountered the sculptures for the first time in 2020 when she was invited to see them by Sam Cornish – co-creator of the exhibition – and Wiz Patterson Kelly of The John Hoyland Estate who saw a relationship between her sculptures and Hoyland’s ceramics.

Olivia Bax said: “The first time I saw Hoyland’s ceramics, I wondered how they had managed to stay under the radar, particularly considering the interest in clay as a material over the last decade.

“Despite being 30 years old, they looked as if they had just been made. This started a conversation about what made them contemporary, and I am delighted that we can now see them, for the first time, in dialogue with other sculptors championing colourful, odd, immediate and funny sculptural hybrids.”

Main image: one of the objects on display at the exhibition, These Mad Hybrids: John Hoyland and Contemporary Sculpture