Recalling the Fifties: British painting and sculpture 1950–60

pasThis exhibition offered a substantial overview of British painting and sculpture from the 1950s, from Auerbach and Bacon, to Frink and Hepworth, Paolozzi and Sutherland.

This exhibition was a re-staging in London of a survey of English painting and sculpture in the Fifties selected by freelance curator Bryan Robertson and presented at the modern art foundation, Artcurial, in Paris, from September to November 1984.

However, the Serpentine Gallery’s exhibition offered an opportunity to expand the original selection and to propose a fuller account of the decade that included additional loans from Leeds City Art Gallery, Sheffield City Art Gallery, the Granada Collection, and the Art Council’s collection.

The exhibition was not intended by Robertson to be a comprehensive survey of the period. Instead, it was presented as a personal selection which aimed at giving a fresh look at the work produced in Britain during this fascinating decade.