Alan Bowness was an art historian whose eye and influence shaped the British contemporary art world over more than 40 years. He never sought the limelight, but his quiet self-assurance and belief in his own convictions inspired confidence in others and made him the most persuasive and effective voice in a talented post-war generation of curators, writers and critics.
In the late 1950s and through the 60s and 70s, he was a pioneering academic and a friend to a generation of abstract artists in England, whose work he championed in print and in the many committees on which he served. In the 80s he became a more public figure as the director of the Tate Gallery, where he made important acquisitions for the national collection, achieved a resolution of the long-running debate about how to honour J.M.W. Turner’s magnificent bequest to the nation and established a new northern outpost for the gallery in creating Tate Liverpool. In the 90s and beyond, he continued his patronage as
Sir Alan Bowness obituary
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Artists cannot escape from translating or bringing what s happening around them in the world into their studios. That is regardless of what form of art: sculpture, poetry or a dance.
The role of the artist is to respond, but this is half of the story. From my perspective, the artist brings the outside world in but, equally, the outside world has the right to respond or not to this creation.
What I notice is that because I am working with materials that speak to many people - because it s a found and familiar object, because the agency of the material is in itself very powerful - people respond to my work very well. They make their own poetry out of it easily.