Sandra Blow, R.A.

Offer Waterman, London
Private Collection
Paisnel Gallery, London, where acquired by the present owner in November 2006

London, Julian Hartnoll Gallery, Sandra Blow RA and Joe Tilson RA: Eight works 1956-1967, 4th - 22nd March 1997, cat. no.1.

Michael Bird, Sandra Blow, Lund Humphries, Aldershot, 2005, illustrated fig.28, p.52.

The following condition report has been prepared by Hamish Dewar, Fine Art Conservation, 13 & 14 Mason's Yard, Duke Street, St James, London, SW1Y 6BU: Structural Condition The structure of oil, plaster and sacking on board is stable and secure. Paint surface Inspection under ultra-violet light shows areas of inpainting around the edges of the construction and in particular on the left vertical edge. There is no evidence of any retouching on the main body of the work. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in good and stable condition and no work is required.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

'I can remember that extraordinary sense of shedding everything, of leaving all the known tracks. And then just looking for something that could be my own, of interpreting the actual structure of painting which seemed to connect with abstract art - structure and space - and finding my own language in it'.
Sandra Blow, in conversation with Sarah O'Brien Twohig, Sandra Blow, exh.cat., Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1994, p.33.

The British artistic landscape of the 1950s underwent considerable changes as the English Neo-Romantic aesthetic declined in favour of new developments in abstraction. For these artists, form was desired above any definable sense of representation, and in Blow's work of the 1950s, we see her own distinct and important contribution to the new British abstract movement. 

Blow contributed to the current concerns with form through the very physical inclusion of unconventional materials. In Sacking and Plaster a thick and coarse netting, roughly worked with plaster, radically explores ideas of three-dimensionality. By intersecting the surface with the thick black line of oil, a dramatic tension resounds through the painting. 

Blow's reinterpretation of collage in this manner was influenced by a formative year she spent in Italy in 1949. Whilst there, she formed a close friendship with Alberto Burri who was exploring the expressive potential of basic materials in works called sacchi. His process of constructing paintings from non-artistic materials such as earth, ash, cement and sacking appealed to Blow's highly developed feeling for texture and colour. Absorbing such techiques for her own end, she moved away from Burri's more delicate and refined execution of sacchi to emphasise further the physicality of the painting process, evident in the tactility of Sacking and Plaster. In her exploration of form during this period, Blow's paintings delight in the gestural handling of material, creating vigorous, energetic pieces which reveal her own very individual contribution to the post-war British artistic landscape.