Lawrence Alloway | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1926-09-17)17 September 1926 Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom |
| Died | 2 January 1990(1990-01-02) (aged 63) New York City,New York, United States |
| Nationality | English |
| Occupation(s) | Art critic Curator |
| Spouse | |
Lawrence Reginald Alloway (17 September 1926 – 2 January 1990) was an Englishart critic andcurator who worked in the United States from 1961. In the 1950s, he was a leading member of theIndependent Group in the UK and in the 1960s was an influential writer and curator in the US. He first used the term "mass popular art" in the mid-1950s and used the term "Pop Art" in the 1960s to indicate that art has a basis in the popular culture of its day and takes from it a faith in the power of images.[1] From 1954 until his death in 1990, he was married to the painterSylvia Sleigh.[2]
Between 1943 and 1947, Alloway studiedart history at theUniversity of London, where he met the future critic and curatorDavid Sylvester.[3] Alloway wrote short book reviews for the LondonTimes in 1944 and 1945, at which time he was between 17 and 19 years old.[3]
Alloway started writing reviews for the British periodicalArt News and Review (later renamedArtReview) in 1949 and for the American periodicalArt News in 1953.[3] InNine Abstract Artists (1954) he promoted theConstructivist artists that emerged in Britain after the Second World War:Robert Adams,Terry Frost,Adrian Heath,Anthony Hill,Roger Hilton,Kenneth Martin,Mary Martin,Victor Pasmore, andWilliam Scott.
Alloway's theory of art reflecting the concrete materials of modern life gave way to an interest in mass-media and consumerism. Alloway joined theIndependent Group in 1952 and lectured on his theory of a circular link between popular cultural "low art" and "high art". From 1955 to 1960 he was assistant director of theInstitute of Contemporary Arts in London. He organised the exhibitionCollages and Objects (1954). In 1956 Alloway contributed to organising the exhibitionThis Is Tomorrow. When reviewing that show and other works he had seen on a trip to the US in a 1958 article, he first used the term "mass popular art".
In 1961, through his contacts with the American painterBarnett Newman, Alloway was offered alecturer position atBennington College inVermont.[4] He and his wife, the realist painterSylvia Sleigh, lived inBennington for only one year before Alloway was appointedcurator at theSolomon R. Guggenheim Museum inNew York City, a position he held until 1966.[4] In 1963 he organised the pop art show,Six Painters and the Object. He chaired the jury of the 1964Guggenheim Awards, one of which was refused by the painterAsger Jorn.[5][6][7]
In 1966, Alloway curated the influentialSystemic Painting exhibition that showcasedgeometric abstraction in American art viaMinimal art,Shaped canvas, andHard-edge painting. He coined the termSystemic Art to "describe a type of abstract art characterized by the use of very simple standardized forms, usually geometric in character, either in a single concentrated image or repeated in a system arranged according to a clearly visible principle of organization".[8] Alloway was also an ardent supporter ofAbstract expressionism and AmericanPop artists, such asRoy Lichtenstein,Claes Oldenburg, andAndy Warhol. He resigned from the Guggenheim afterThomas M. Messer, the museum's director, overruled Alloway's selections—consisting mostly of sculptures—for the upcomingVenice Biennale.[9]
In 1966–67, Alloway was appointed visiting professor at the School of Fine Arts atSouthern Illinois University Carbondale, whereJohn McHale andBuckminster Fuller were also on staff.[3]
In the 1970s, Alloway wrote forThe Nation andArtforum, and lectured at theState University of New York, Stony Brook where he was appointed professor ofart history. There he co-founded the magazineArt Criticism with the criticDonald Kuspit. With the rise of thefeminist art movement, Alloway championed the work of women; he noted, for example, "a 3-to-1 advantage" of men over women in theWhitney Annual in 1977.[10]
Concerning the origins of the termPop Art, Alloway said, "The term, originated in England by me, as a description of mass communications, especially, but not exclusively, visual ones."[1] In a footnote to his essayPop Art the words, he also states, "The first published appearance of the terms that I know is: Lawrence Alloway, 'The Arts and the Mass Media,'Architectural Design, February 1958, London. Ideas onPop Art were discussed byReyner Banham,Theo Crosby,Frank Cordell,Toni del Renzio,Richard Hamilton, Nigel Henderson,John McHale,Eduardo Paolozzi,Alison and Peter Smithson, sculptor William Turnbull, and myself."[1]
However, there are contradictory recollections as to the origin of the term: according toJohn McHale's son his father first coined the term in 1954 in conversation withFrank Cordell, and the term was then used in Independent Group discussions by mid 1955.[11] Alloway used the term 'mass popular art' in his oft quoted 1958 article but he did not use the specific term "Pop Art" in the piece.[11]
Alloway suffered from aneurological disorder and died ofcardiac arrest on 2 January 1990, aged 63.[12]
