Brian Blow

Works
Biography

Brian Blow (1931-2009) was born in London and trained at the Sir John Cass School of Art, Saint Martin’s School of Art and the Hornsey School of Art where he studied etching under Norman Janes. His work is ‘a personal exploration of form in space, a voyage of discovery in the visible world - not just the natural world of trees, rocks, the human figure, but the city and industrial landscape with its remains and fragments of man-made objects and structures. Although primarily non-representational, my pieces frequently contain echoes of these things. They are rarely based on intellectual concepts, rather they are my responses to visual experience, organised and structured within parameters dictated by the characteristics and special qualities of the materials used'.

 

His creativity was fuelled by the many exhibitions of work by early twentieth century masters shown in London in the post-war years. From the late fifties to early sixties he exhibited with several London galleries and with the Finsbury Art Group - a collective of painters associated with the art critic Eric Newton. His painting developed into low relief forms on the surface of the canvas; he moved into sculpture and he began to explore photography, spurred on by the opening of the Photographers' Gallery in London.

 

Blow’s work is held in private and public collections in the USA, Canada and Europe, including the Museum of Art, Rhode Island, USA, the Tate Gallery, the William Scott Foundation and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.