BOWEN, DENIS (1921-2006)

"No.20" (1961) 
mixed media on paper
cm
signed lower right
*estate of Judy Cassab
 
Bowen was an influential, legendary South African Artist, gallery owner & pioneering abstract art promoter. He studied at the Huddersfield School of Art from 1936. After serving in the Navy in World War II, Bowen resumed his art studies at the Royal College of Art in London in 1946. Between 1940 and 1986 Bowen taught art at numerous prestigious institutions in England. In 1951 Bowen founded the New Vision Group, which initially emerged from meetings and displays that he organised with his students in 1951. In 1955, Bowen helped open a permanent exhibition space for the New Vision Group and associated artists. Bowen, Wilson and Nalecz were all members of the New Vision Group and also the Free Painters Group. Their new exhibition space was called the New Vision Centre Gallery, and was located in Marble Arch, London. While the importance of the NVCG was often overlooked while it was active, its significant role in shaping British art in the postwar period, and in promoting international artists and abstract art in particular. Bowen served as director of the gallery from the time of its opening to the time of its closure in 1966. In the early years of his artistic career, from the early 1950s to the mid 1960s, Bowen formed part of a small group of UK-based artists who were associated with Tachisme and Art Informel. Working alongside British artist Kenneth Coutts-Smith, Bowen launched the Commonwealth Biennale of Abstract Art at the NVGC in 1963. This impressive oil on paper is dedicated to his friend, prominent Australian artist, Judy Cassab, and comes from her estate.