Above the 'Cave'

 

My last post here talked about the Ikon basement on John Bright Street.  It included a photo of the Ikon 'team' plus the partner of visiting artist Pieter Laurens Mol.  Pretty much the whole Ikon team is featured, apart from Audrey Howkins, our long suffering secretarial support and - perhaps - Richard Stokes our Deputy Director (though I think he may have re-located to Nottingham's Midland Group by that time. They are left to right, Director Hugh Stoddart, David Stoker, Michelle Fuirer, myself, Pieter's partner and Paul Swales, Gallery Manager.  We were a team of six then...take a moment to look up how many Ikon staff there are today!  The photo above shows one of Pieter's installations - I think on our ground floor gallery.  This space, as large as the basement, was really light and airy.

This picture shows how effective it was for large scale paintings - these lovely early Mali Morris canvases make use of the skylights.  But the wall system, an ingenious marriage of Dexion shelving and huge chipboard panels (devised by Richard Stokes) allowed for re-organisation of the space in multiple ways.  Shown below to good effect during our Canada In Birmingham show where Irene Whittome created this minimalist installation, with plaster dust...

I've written before how, although I documented shows fairly rigorously I only took a handful of slides with me when I left - with many others I suspect being ditched when Ikon transferred to Brindley Place (In 1997).  I left in 1981 but Antonia Payne and her team went on to mount many more superb shows in the place.

But it was looking out some images by the painter Knighton Hosking recently that reminded me that I have at least a few reminders of the extraordinary space that Ikon occupied from the autumn of 1978 to 1981.

Knighton was a helluva painter and had a good career established by the time of his Ikon show (these contributions below to big survey exhibitions show the company he had been keeping) but was bedevilled by personal tragedy and his location (in Wolverhampton, i.e. away from London).  In another time and place he would have far greater recognition and acclaim

Earth, Sky, Water 6, 1974 213 x 274 cm acrylic on canvas

exhibited in British Painting' 74 at the Hayward Gallery.

3 Partial Views No. 2 96 x 72 in. acrylic in canvas

exhibited in British Painting 1952 - 1977 Royal Academy 1977

Knighton Hosking 1944 - 2019

Portrait by Walia (from Contemporary British Artists Photographs by Walia pub. 1979)