Sandra Blow 1925-2006
Untitled, c.1956
oil plaster and sacking on board
19 x 15¾ ins




The effect of the contemporary American painting on British art in the later 1950’s is well-known, especially in the aftermath of the 1956 ‘Modern Art In The United States’ and 1959 ‘The New American Painting’ Tate Gallery exhibitions. Equally the influence, and accessibility, of Europe was still extremely strong, especially in their treatment of the plastic possibilities of the picture surface. The deftly manipulated paint surfaces of Nicholas de Stael had become familiar to many artists, as had the art of Jean Dubuffet with its use of media as varied as butterfly wings and leaves, and the memory of émigrés such as Kurt Schwitters was still fresh.

However, it was the influence of contemporary Italian art that was foremost in Blow’s works of this period, particularly due to her close friendship with Alberto Burri. Blow met him during her study in Rome in 1947-48 and his harshly worked and intensely textural surfaces were a great source for her. The use of materials such as sackcloth and the monochrome palette in part derive from his precedent, although she developed her own language of composition and spatial awareness. American art was also important, and indeed, along with artists as diverse as Alan Davie, Peter Lanyon and William Gear, Blow was to have solo shows in New York in 1956-57.

The path of her painting was to change shortly after this work was made, with a sojourn in Cornwall in 1957-58 exposing her to the work of Roger Hilton.