Peter Kennard STOP
Peter Kennard
1968: Stop
23 May – 28 June 2008
private view: Thursday 22 May 6-8pm
Since his first solo exhibition in 1968 Peter Kennard has consistently held a mirror up to the contemporary world with the aim of enacting social and political change. On the 40th anniversary of his first show, Gimpel Fils is pleased to present a retrospective exhibition of paintings made in the wake of the turbulent student uprisings of May 1968.
Kennard’s Stop paintings mark the beginning of what has become a remarkable artistic career. The visual imagery found in these paintings, from the outstretched hand to the silhouetted paratrooper, was to reoccur in Kennard’s photomontage work throughout the 1970s and 1980s losing none of their visceral power. Kennard’s radical political stance to the war in Vietnam and the Soviet military clampdown in Czechoslovakia finds visual form in these paintings. As a member of a growing disaffected youth culture Kennard’s work voiced the concerns of a generation. Having grown up during the height of the Cold War this generation saw the increased global military activity of the 1960s as a return to an old world order.
To mark this exhibition Gimpel Fils will be holding a panel discussion, Art and Culture since May '68, exploring the legacies of the student uprisings in Britain. Speakers, including Tariq Ali, Esther Leslie and Hilary Wainwright, will address such issues as whether the visual arts have the potential to instigate political change; has art reflected the realities of political change since 1968 and does political art have a role to play in today’s social climate.
Art and Culture since May '68 will take place on Tuesday 10th June from 6:30-8:30 pm. There is no charge for this event, but places are limited. To reserve a seat please contact: lukas@gimpelfils.com
Peter Kennard was born in 1949 and studied at the Byam Shaw School of Art, The Slade and The Royal College of Art. He has been a Senior Lecturer in Photography at the Royal College of Art since 1994. His first solo exhibition was held at St Catherine's College, Oxford in 1968. Since then he has exhibited regularly, with work included in major exhibitions such as Art into Society, at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, 1978; Through the Looking Glass', Photographic Art in Britain 1945-89, at the Barbican Centre, London, 1989; Media Burn at Tate Modern, London, 2006-7; and Forms of Resistance at Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 2007-8. Kennard's work is represented in various public collections including the Arts Council Collection; the Victoria and Albert Museum; the Imperial War Museum; and the Tate.
