November 6, 2019 |
Why choose between retail therapy and culturally educating yourself when you can have both, at the same time? Ahead of Sotheby’s sale of Modern & Post-War British Art later this month, an exhibition of the auction house’s works was curated by the discerning eyes of Isabella Cawdor and Stella Tennant and will be on display at Holland and Holland’s Bruton Street flagship. It should come as no surprise that for the brand’s collaborative exhibition with Sotheby’s that Tennant and Cawdor hand-picked modernist pieces by the St Ives School and the Neo-Romantics.
Like the creative duo, the artists of both movements turned often to their surroundings and landscapes to inform their work.“The DNA of Holland and Holland is very much rooted in the British countryside – every collection starts with the environment, the weather and the landscape. This notion of working with the landscape is one that resonates strongly with Modern British art,” explains Tennant. “I love seeing how these painters took a modern approach to such quintessentially British subject matter, starting with something figurative and then finding purity in abstraction – this outlook is something we aspire to,” she continues.
Henry Moore’s ‘Maquette for Mother and Child Arms’ (1956)
Paintings and sculptures by artists including Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, Patrick Heron, Henry Moore, John Piper and Peter Lanyon have been selected to sit alongside Holland and Holland’s latest collections in the store. Created in naturalistic and earthy colour palettes, the artworks’ subject matters traverse natural forms, figures and landscapes that oscillate between tradition and painterly abstraction, which came to define British Modern art of the post-war period and beyond. “I have been fortunate enough to be surrounded by art all of my life, and it has always been a real inspiration – an exhibition can really set the mind on fire and open up entirely new ways of seeing – and my lookbooks are littered with paintings and sculptures,” says Cawdor of the selection. “It is thrilling to see these synergies come to life in an exhibition of artworks alongside the clothes.” Once you’ve done admiring the pieces in the store, make sure to find your way to Sotheby’s and bid on a few pieces. They will go quite beautifully with your new herringbone hunting jacket…
Holland and Holland x Modern British Art will be on view from November 8th to 13th in the London flagship store, W1J 6HH. The works will then be offered at auction as part of Sotheby’s Modern & Post-War British Art sales on November 19th and 20th.
Peter Lanyon’s ‘Dry-Wind’ (1958)
Ben Nicholson’s ‘December 15 1949’ or ‘Still Life Blue’ (1949)
Patrick Heron’s ‘St. Ives Window with Red Carpet’ (1952)
