Summer Show 5 [1971]: Cézanne is the father of modern painting

The Serpentine’s fifth exhibition in the summer of 1971 showcased artists influenced by Cézanne, the father of modern painting.

The exhibition carried the full title, Cézanne is the father of modern painting: Graham Clucas, Maurice Cockrill, Gareth Jones, John Knox, John McLean, Jan Suckling, a few of his children.

John McLean, Graham Clucas, Gareth Jones, Maurice Cockrill, and John Knox each showed pieces separately in one of the Serpentine’s five galleries, with Jan Suckling utilising the space outside.

Works included in the exhibition were silkscreens by Clucas in the Print Gallery. About his work on the East Lawn, Suckling wrote: “The exhibits are all polythene bags and tubes filled with water, and they will be replaced at intervals by different pieces. The bags will vary from one foot six square to four by six feet. The tubes will extend to eighty feet in length and two feet in width.”