Bill Culbert

BILL CULBERT (1935-2019)

Road through trees II  1962

oil on board

signed, dated, and inscribed with title, and Nottingham University on the reverse

24 x 17½ ins (61 x 44.5 cm)

 

Exhibited:

Piccadilly Gallery, Bill Culbert, 1963, no.2

 

An early example by the artist, one of a series depicting a car speeding through a landscape, showing the influence of Cezanne and Cubism, painted while he was teaching at Nottingham School of Art.

 

…. the equation Culbert now attempts is between the firm unit of the mechanised box and the changing fragmentations of landscape …. participating, robot-like in the driving seat and by transference of feeling into the passing landscape, vibrating to the rhthmic pulse of the engine in bodily, visual and auditory experience – Maurice de Sausmarez, catalogue introduction, Piccadilly Gallery, 1963

 

One of New Zealand’s leading modern artists, Culbert studied at Canterbury University School of Art 1953-56, before attending the Royal College in London 1957-60. From 1963-72, he was senior painting tutor at Nottingham School of Art. During this period, he had seven one-man exhibitions in the UK. His first solo show was at the Commonwealth Institute in 1961. From 1967, he abandoned representational painting, and soon became an internationally recognised conceptual artist whose principal medium was electric light. His wall sculptures, environmental works & photographs have included light bulbs, neon light, lampshades, car parts, glasses, suitcases, bottles inter alia. He represented New Zealand at the Venice Biennale 2013, and his work has been acquired by numerous public collections worldwide.