Thank you to everyone who attended the very successful book launch on the 8th of April, or who have visited the exhibition since. The enthusiastic response has been over-whelming. On Sunday the 4th of May there will be a closing concert at Clifford Chance. The concert will be the last chance to view the exhibition, and to purchase the book at the introductory price of £85 (payment by cash or cheque). You can find more information on the book here.

30th Floor Gallery, Clifford Chance, 10 Upper Bank Street, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5JJ
RSVP essential: garywragg@btinternet.com
Early reply welcome

Programme
First half – Emma Wragg, Violin, and James Cheung, Piano
Ralph Vaughan-Williams – The Lark Ascending
Ludwig van Beethoven – The Spring Sonata, Opus 24 in F major
Interval at 3.45
Second half – Ben Wragg, Solo Violin
Bach – Andante from Sonata no.2 in A minor for Solo Violin
Teleman – Fantasy no.2 in G for Violin without Bass
S. Prokofiev – Sonata for Solo Violin

Constant Within The Change: Gary Wragg: Five Decades of Paintings: A Comprehensive Catalogue is published in March 2014 by Sansom & Company.

Texts by Hilary Spurling, Matthew Collings, Terence Maloon, Sam Cornish, Stefanie Sachsenmaier and Wragg himself explore various aspects of his art – including his affinity with American Abstract Expressionism; his friendship and visits with painters Jack Tworkov and Willem de Kooning; and his practice of Tai Chi, of which he is one of Europe’s leading experts.

In two volumes, Constant Within The Change includes over five hundred full-colour images, and comes with access to the complete online catalogue of Wragg’s work. 2 Volumes in slipcase, each volume 240 pages, 280 x 280mm

Exhibition runs 10 March-2 May, viewing by appointment only
Book launch including retrospective exhibition of five decades 8 April 2014, 6-8.30 pm at Clifford Chance

Opened by Sir Norman Rosenthal with Gary Wragg present for book signing
30th Floor Gallery, Clifford Chance, 10 Upper Bank Street, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5JJ
RSVP essential: Jane.Hindley@cliffordchance.com / 020 7006 5384

Sat 15 Mar 2014-
Sun 29 Jun 2014
Tickets: Free entry

Booking & Information:
01424 229 111

Frank Auerbach | Frank Bowling | Jeffery Camp | William Daniels | Jacqui Hallum | Sophie von Hellermann | Andrew Kerr | Katy Kirbach | Leon Kossoff | Henry Krokatsis | Bruce McLean | Christopher Le Brun | Lisa Milroy | Alessandro Raho | Hayley Tompkins | Phoebe Unwin | Joella Wheatley | Adrian Wiszniewski | John Wonnacott | Jessica Warboys| Gary Wragg

Co-curated by Dan Howard-Birt

“it challenges boundaries about what painting should be….interesting, ambitious and provocative” Financial Times

“An evocative celebration of the richness and complexity of painting as it is happening in studios all over Britain in the work of artists, from established to up-and-coming” The Times

Eye – Mind, Heart, Freedom, Discipline – Painting

Paint, drawing and colour are the unifying vehicles for me that dialogue between complexity and simplicity, where intuition, perception, sensations and ideas interact, consciously or otherwise. Drawing has always been the core of my painting, that I understand  mostly in terms of colour, to illuminate that which can, and cannot be seen.

Every studio workday for me is about looking, looking and looking and the feel of things that connect with the painting in progress. Direct experience of the work is essential, to see it as much as is possible without memory, arranging and re-arranging in a renewal and re-discovery of paint, its layering, colour and light. This holds a magic and a mystery for me to discover and realize both felt and seen, internal and external sensations through painting.

Over the decades I have practiced a natural integration of the separate disciplines of painting and Tai Chi Chuan. Tai Chi Chuan is a Chinese art of human action of energy in stillness and movement. It is a meditation of stillness in movement. The sensations during my daily practice of Tai Chi Chuan for me contribute to the everyday direct, physical putting on of paint, without idea or thought.

My painting from the early nineteen-sixties to the mid nineteen-seventies generally but not exclusively emphasised  stillness over movement. Thereafter the emphasis was on movement over stillness, the stillness within movement, and movement within stillness. In recent decades I have experimented with combinations of kinds of order and balance/imbalance –chaos, dynamic sensations – a complimentary state of tranquility and calm, fusing tactile and optical permutations.

‘Mind’ in Tai Chi Chuan equals eye and heart, and combines ‘Hsin’, the organising aspect of planning, and ‘Yi’, sensing, implementing, and spontaneous without thought – what in Zen is termed ‘mindful mindlessness.’ For me it is the same with my painting and drawing.

Chance and landing up in a mess is where for me the riches are in painting from which to locate a personal sense of order. The magnetism of the painted surface invites exploration of freedom and discipline where the feel of the paint and space stimulate a direct-ness, void of storytelling. It is as you see it. At times the paintings become overworked, making it a challenge to end up with a fresh statement, that I hope has precision, clarity of colour, luminosity of inner light, and a feeling of air to breath.

Gary Wragg
27/9/2013