ROY LICHTENSTEIN

Each new art movement offers a new interpretation of the world, a novel way of representing that which we all see slightly differently. In the twentieth century, it seemed that these ways of seeing were never stagnant, each new decade bringing with it multiple, radical new conceptions of existence. For Roy Lichtenstein, one of the great masters of Pop Art in the American 1960s, his interest was in exploring, subverting, and adapting these representations in ways that spoke directly to the contemporary age. His most famous realisation of these ideas comes in his Benday Dot paintings, where he would reproduce panels from comic books or adverts, meticulously painting a mechanical process of reproduction. Yet, later in his life when he began his ‘Landscape Series’, which this painting is from, he began to flatten his influences into kaleidoscopic beauty. His River Valley contains within it decades of different artistic styles and different interpretations of the natural world, from the expressive brushstrokes and painterly hand to the rigorous lines and modern flourishes - it is an homage to art history, and a declaration that though times have changes, all painters are simply trying to find new ways to see the world.

CHARLES BURCHFIELD

On the back of this painting, Burchfield describes his intentions to "interpret a child’s impression of noon-tide in late May—The heat of the sun streaming down & rosebushes making the air drowsy with their perfume.” This drowsiness is apt, the painting is alive with the intoxication of spring, a scene of vivid imagination seen through sun drenched eyes. Like so many of his contemporaries, Burchfield found nature an exhilarating subject, and painted a series of works depicting the seasons, of which this is one. His intention was not to document the world, but capture the mood of it with a youthful fascination, and recreate his childhood adoration for the gardens he spent many hours in. This work is of his neighbours backyard in Salem, Ohio, and was painted after an unhappy sojourn in New York City. It is perhaps the return to a rural, natural world after the imposing urbanity that charges this painting with such vitality, joy, and exuberance.

HANS WEGNER

Simplicity, functionality, elegance and an influence from nature are the tenets of Danish design. Wegner captures them all in his CH22 Lounge chair. The form pressed back follows the curves of a leaf, while the arm supports seem reminiscent of axe handles and yet the whole thing is so simple, seems so obvious, you hardly notice it’s brilliance. Wegner was prolific, and obsessed with Chairs. He designed over 500 different models in his life, striving for a single perfect seat. Nearly all of these chairs in some way compliment each other, none would look out of place in a room filled with them, but it was never enough for Wegner. ‘If only could design just one good chair in your life,’ he said, ‘but you simply cannot’.