Objective abstraction
Objective abstraction was a short-lived British abstract movement of 1933-1936, named after the 'Objective Abstractions' exhibition held at London's Zwemmer Gallery in 1934. At a moment of wide experimentation in British art, a young circle - Graham Bell, William Coldstream, Edgar Hubert, Rodrigo Moynihan, and Geoffrey Tibble - moved from painting derived from external objects toward increasingly abstract canvases built from freely applied, improvised brushstrokes. The label is something of a misnomer: only a minority of the exhibitors were fully abstract at the time, and the grouping dissolved within a few years, several members resurfacing in the realist Euston Road School. William Townsend told the Tate Gallery that the style began with Geoffrey Tibble in late 1933 and was taken up at once by Moynihan and Hubert. The group's importance lies in this brief, concentrated experiment with abstraction in interwar British painting.
Defining characteristics
- Freely applied, improvised brushstrokes carried across the whole surface
- Forms distilled from external objects rather than built from pure geometry
- Loose, painterly, textured surfaces with visible working
- Progressive abstraction: recognizable sources dissolving into marks
Key figures
- Geoffrey Tibble (1909-1952) — Started the style in late 1933 and showed in the 1934 Zwemmer exhibition
- Rodrigo Moynihan (1910-1990) — Early adopter, credited as a pioneer of abstract painting in England
- Edgar Hubert (1906-1985) — British abstract painter who took up the manner alongside Moynihan
- William Coldstream (1908-1987) — Member who later co-founded the realist Euston Road School
Sources
- Objective abstraction - Wikipedia encyclopedia