RICHARD ROBINSON

Born 1936 in Calcutta India.

Came to England 1947.

Eight years in RAF as Airframe fitter.

Acquired discharge by purchase, (bought myself out) 1963.

Ipswich School of Art till 1965.

Dip.A&D (now B.A.) at Central School of Art till 1968.

Uni of London Inst of Ed 1969.

Teaching evening and day classes in art and history of art (Art Appreciation) in London Tooting, Pimlico, Chelsea from 1969 – 1975, part-time Art Lecturer Braintree College of F.E. 1975 -1977. Full time from 1977 -1980.

1980 -1986 Formed group 3D – 3 dimensional art work constructions and sculptures. During this time started part-time work, self employed, on Citroen 2CV’s. From 1987 to 2007 family circumstances meant transition to full-time work on 2CV’s, during this period developing ideas at drawing, sketch and model level.

2008 Formation of Lonely Arts Club and first show at The Forum Norwich.

EXHIBITIONS

1961  ASTRAL HOUSE LONDON INTERNATIONAL SHOW ROYAL AIR FORCE

1962  GROUP SHOW RUGBY AND DISTRICT

1963  TWO MAN SHOW, NEW GALLERY IPSWICH

1965  EXPO – PRE DIP GROUP SHOW AT UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA

1968  CENTRAL SCHOOL OF ART, LONDON, DIP IN FINE ART SHOW

1969  GROUP SHOW CIRCLE GALLERY LONDON (CONSTRUCTIONS)

1971  ONE MAN CIRCLE GALLERY LONDON (CONSTRUCTIONS)

1976  MADDERMARKET THEATRE NORWICH (CONSTRUCTIONS)

1977  TWO MAN SHOW TUDOR HOUSE MUSEUM BOCKING – PAINTINGS AND CONSTRUCTIONS

1977  TWO MAN ESSEX UNIVERSITY – PAINTINGS AND CONSTRUCTIONS

1981  GROUP SHOW ASSEMBLY HOUSE NORWICH – PAINTING AND CONSTRUCTIONS

1981  NORWICH 20 GROUP SHOW, UNIVERSITY EAST ANGLIA - CONSTRUCTIONS

1982  OBJECTS FACTS AND THINGS MADDERMARKET / CINEMA CITY, GROUP SHOW ‘3D’ – CONSTRUCTIONS, DRAWINGS

1983  ‘3D’ GROUP SHOW, YARMOUTH LIBRARY GALLERY – CONSTRUCTIONS, PAINTINGS, DRAWINGS

1986  ‘ROOM ON THE GROUND FLOOR ‘, LONDON GROUP SCULPTURE  SHOW

2008  LONELY ARTS CLUB, NORWICH FORUM, GROUP SHOW – PAINTING, DRAWINGS

2009  LONELY ARTS CLUB, NORWICH FORUM, GROUP SHOW – PAINTINGS, DRAWINGS

2010 EXPERIENCING LANDSCAPE -FOUR ARTISTS, LAUDERDALE HOUSE, LONDON

2012 THE LONELY ARTS CLUB, STEW GALLERY, NORWICH

2013 THE LONELY ARTS CLUB, THE FORUM, NORWICH

2013 THE RED LIGHT GALLERY, NORWICH

2014 ANTEROS ARTS FOUNDATION, NORWICH

GENERAL

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

As a boy I spent most of my time in a rural environment, both while still in India and later in this country. On the other hand Science and Technology have also taken my interest since early years. Machines have always fascinated me, from early mechanisms to modern aircraft, the whole idea of flying, motor cycles, cars and everything associated with space. I became an avid reader of Science Fiction. Another main influence on my early years was my reading of Greek Mythology. Scenes from the Iliad took my imagination and I developed over around 5 years a series of paintings involving fighting figures in motion, interconnecting, overlapping in long processional type paintings. In due course they reached a high state of abstraction, under the influence of Graham Sutherland, Francis Bacon and American Abstract Expressionism.
 

In 1963 I started art school. Here I was introduced to the science of Cybernetics (Control & Communication in the animal & the machine – early information & systems theory).
 

This was important as it reinforced the tendency to bring two big ‘opposites’ together, Science & Nature. This has not happened in a simple consistent way, rather in moves one way then another, and so on, only gradually arriving at a comprehensive theory of my art as a whole.
 

What has continued to engage my interest is the development of the relative autonomy of the work of art.
 

Complete autonomy of art is a chimera, it is not possible because all art, as all forms of human production, reflects nature in some way, at the same time as ‘humanising’ it through the subjective processes of abstraction, and concept formation.
 

The first stage of human reflection exists in thought, as part of the subjective world of social consciousness. The next stage, to put it simply, is the realisation of those abstract subjective relations back out in the objective world through the agency of human labour. The now humanised, material objects of human reflection - social production, in its entirety, are inextricably bound up with those objects that tend to be separated into what we call ‘art’. (All art is therefore ‘abstract’ to greater or lesser degree). As Cezanne once simply and brilliantly put it, “Art is a harmony parallel to nature”. 
 

Investigations into the relative autonomy of the art work have naturally led to a greater interest in the origination, or genesis, of the work and to experiments with the development of a complex object/painting, etc through the effects of design on the one hand and the actions of chance on the other.

I stress complex rather than simple because to me, looking at nature through the eyes of science, so to speak, it is the dynamic, interactive connectivity of nature that astounds. One can’t avoid the thought that nature reflected through human consciousness, reflected in some material form – art – should also reflect this complexity, and thence to the idea of the complex, autonomous art work.
 

The work I have been doing over the last five years has been based on ‘landscape’, in the general sense, and is moving toward increasingly self-sustained forms with their own abstract visual logic, with their own developing visual alphabet & vocabulary, hopefully increasing both the complexity of relations and the relative internal autonomy of the whole work.
 

As an extension of this I am also now engaged in developing lines of related 3D works, as constructions and sculptures, interconnected in their differing fields.

2014

Contact details:
www.richardrobinsonart.co.uk
email robinson.r@hotmail.co.uk
tel. 01603 615249

Please click on thumbnail images to display each picture on its own page.

Also a member of:

The Lonely Arts Club

Richard Robinson's Weblog

The News Line Saturday April 12 2014 by a guest reviewer

Norfolk Contemporary Art Society Review

Work 2013

Work 2008-2010

Work 2006-2007

Work 2007-2008

Last image January 2009

Earlier work

1968 onwards