Lots 159, 160 & 166

Preview, Saturday 18th April, 6–8 pm
19th April–24th May

Open Saturday-Sunday, 12–5 pm,
and by appointment: hello@ivorytars.co.uk

Ivory Tars is pleased to present an exhibition of three paintings by Barrie Cook (b.1929, Birmingham, d.2020, The Lizard), purchased as unstretched lots from an auction in Penzance on the 1st August 2024.

Due to their size, it is common for large-scale abstract paintings to be removed from their stretchers and rolled for transportation and storage. During the time they spend un-stretched however, the value of these canvases alters. No longer viewable in the manner that they were intended to be, they await a moment at which those optimal conditions are once more bestowed upon them. This diminished visual intelligibility is, in turn,reflected in the economic worth afforded to these unsupported objects.

‘Support’ in this instance can refer to a physical frame that acts to hold a painted surface in tension, but also to a broader system—at once logistical, financial, critical and ideological—that accommodates such tensioned surfaces.