British Abstract Painting in the Eighties

This one-day symposium is intended to reconsider the development and exploration of abstract painting during the 1980s in the UK. In the spring of 1981, the exhibition ‘A New Spirit in Painting,’ helped to launch a revival of figurative art and traditional painting by introducing many trans-avantgarde painters to Britain. The more pluralised approach to painting that followed, offered, through its diversification, new territories for abstract painters to explore. Presentations will examine the relationship of abstraction and pedagogy, abstraction as a feminist issue and the role of experience in abstract painting.

The key note speech will be made by painter, video artist, and musician David Ryan; presentations will be made by Maggie Ayliffe, Professor Rebecca Fortnum, Dr Susan Liggett, Chistopher McHugh, Dr Tom Palin, Zino Pece, Dr Daniel Sturgis and Dr David Sweet.

Further information and tickets can be found at abstractbritain.com | 

£20 doctoral students and artists

£30 institutionally affiliated attendees