Summer Show 4 [1972]

This was the fourth summer exhibition staged by the Serpentine Gallery in 1972.

For this exhibition, Alan Welsford, Robert Frankland, and John Liggins displayed works on the Serpentine Gallery lawn, while those on show in the galleries included Ron McCormick, who presented works in the Print Gallery. Other pieces on display included Trevor Allen’s Strawberries on a Summer’s Day and Stephen Lobb’s Soft Cover.

The exhibition was also an early platform for the mixed media installation work of Marc Camille Chaimowicz (b.1947), presenting the seminal work Enough Tiranny. A version of the work has been presented several times in recent years, including at the ICA in London in 2007, and again for the reopening of Artists Space in New York in 2009. Speaking to Lauren O’Neill-Butler in Artforum.com in 2009, Chaimowicz recalled the work’s presentation at the Serpentine Gallery: “In terms of reception, the way I was working was alien to an audience that was still presuming to see work on the walls to be negotiated at eye level. Mine was floor-based, scattered. At the Serpentine on a sunny day, people walking through the park might stop by, and they were bemused, shocked, by the work.” The work has since been presented at Art Basel 2013 with Cabinet gallery, London.