We are delighted to show the works of Julia Atkinson at Brownsword Hepworth Gallery. 

ARTIST STATEMENT: 

Since early childhood I have looked at and collected objects for their colour, pattern and texture, and learning to draw heightened my ability to observe detail and structure. I naturally enjoyed creating new colours through mixing pigments but when I was twenty three I took this further by experimenting with optical colour mixing. Screen printing is the perfect technique for portraying pure flat colour. I experimented with printing and contrasting matt and shiny surfaces, on paper or on fabric, using stripes and geometric shapes and patterns.

~ Julia Atkinson, 2013 ~

Screen printing was popularised as an artistic medium in the early 1960s by Andy Warhol who used the medium to capture the American post-war zeitgeist through now iconic works such as the 1962 Marilyn Diptych.

Although screen printing was taken up by prominent pop artists across the Atlantic such as Eduardo Paolozzi and Joe Tilson, in the same context the medium became associated with Op Art principally due to the popularity of artists including Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely.

Around the same time, Julia Atkinson became the first student at The Slade School of Fine Art to specialise in screen printing, and she won an award for her success with the medium.

Over the following decade, Atkinson's practice centred on the Interchange Series in which the artist's mastery of screen printing reaches its apex. By methodically experimenting with colour combinations within grid formats, and informed by a rigorous study of contemporary colour theory, Atkinson produced tantalising optical illusions that appear to shimmer and pulsate.

Even today, 50 years after they were produced, the screenprints retain their full vibrancy and emanate a futuristic energy, while recalling the techno-utopianism that defined the cultural landscape in the late 20^th century.

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT INTERVIEW 

BH: The Interchange Series were made when it wasn't possible to configure designs digitally, or print them on a laser printer. It is really amazing how you managed to create such an effective gradient of colour.

Julia: I also painted stripes of colour on 2 meter wide canvases to create optical mixing according to how close or far the viewer was from them. Because of this work, I was invited to teach in an American college. Here I studied the work of Josef Albers and devised a course for Art Foundation students which explored all aspects of colour, mostly through Screen Printing. 

Julia: In 1985 I had the opportunity to study part time Fine Art Textiles at Goldsmiths College. This introduced me to studying colour through dyeing and bleaching techniques, which led to my making 2 meter high dyed and screen printed wall hangings.

Julia: Finally, I should like to mention that my father, Leslie Atkinson, was a painter and illustrator of children's books. My mother, Ivy Oliver, was a ballet dancer. They were married in 1938 and he served in the War as a camouflage officer. When I was 5, they left London and we moved to a house on the sea front at Herne Bay. I grew up with a love of nature and explored the beach for fossils, shells and colourful stones. Hence, by living again with nature in the countryside, my first obsession for collecting, has returned.