Metamorphosis

British Art of the Sixties

26.06 - 25.09.2005

In the summer of 2005, the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation organized - in collaboration with the British Council and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation - in the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation in Andros, a group exhibition of important British artists who built their reputation during the sixties.

The exhibition had borrowed its title "Metamorphosis" from a painting of Bridget Riley (1931- ), a title which denoted the intention of the exhibition to reveal the visual "metamorphoses" which emerged in the sixties as the outcome of the great social, political and cultural changes which occurred in the post-war era.

The exhibition included paintings, sculptures, works on paper and prints drawn from the rich reserves of the collections of the Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon and the British Council, London. The presentation was focused on the different strands coming to the fore in art in the early-mid 1960s and featured key works by leading artists associated with British Pop; abstract art from the short-lived but influential Situation Group; and abstract coloured sculpture as initially defined by the famous sculptor Anthony Caro but later taken by younger sculptors who became known as the New Generation Group. In addition, important early works by such international figures as Bridget Riley and Howard Hodgkin were presented.

In total, 61 artworks by 31 artists were presented: David Annesley (1936- ), Gillian Ayres (1930-2018), Peter Blake (1932- ), Michael Bolus (1934-2013), Derek Boshier (1937- ), Anthony Caro (1924-2013), Patrick Caulfield (1936-2005), Bernard Cohen (1933- ), Barrie Cook (1929- ), Robyn Denny (1930-1914), Antony Donaldson (1939- ), Garth Evans (1934- ), Richard Hamilton (1922-2011), David Hockney (1937- ), Howard Hodgkin (1932-2017), John Hoyland (1934-2011), Paul Huxley (1938- ), Allen Jones (1937- ), Michael Kidner (1917-2009), Phillip King (1934- ), Jeremy Moon (1934-1973), Eduardo Paolozzi (1924-2005), Peter Phillips (1939- ), John Plumb (1927-2008), Bridget Riley (1931- ), Peter Sedgley (1930- ), Colin Self (1941- ), Richard Smith (1931-2016), Ian Stephenson (1934-2000), Joe Tilson (1928- ), Isaac Witkin (1936-2006).

Curators of the exhibition were Richard Riley, Curator at the British Council in London, and Ana Vasconcelos, Curator of the Modern Art Center Jose de Azeredo Perdigao of the Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon.

The exhibition was accompanied by a particularly meticulous and informative catalogue of excellent design and printing quality. As well as reproductions of all the works, it contains an introductory text by Kyriakos Koutsomallis, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation, and essays of the Curators of the exhibition Richard Riley, Ana Vasconcelos and Isadora Papadrakakis, Head Creativity and Society of the British Council in Greece. Catalogue also contains texts on the works of the exhibition by art historians Margarita Kataga and Elena Paleokosta, as well as biographical notes on the artists and selective bibliography.