Alan Charlton

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2022

THE CRITICAL EYE, A arte Invernizzi, Milano

2021

PAINTED / UNPAINTED, Konrad Fischer Galerie, Berlin

2020

PAINTED / UNPAINTED, Galeria Cayon, Madrid

The Breath Of The Boundry, A Arte Invernizzi, Milan, Italy

2019

Trapezium Paintings, Patrick De Brock Gallery, Knokke, Belgium

Angles, Galerie Jean Brolly, Paris, France

Painted / Unpainted, Slewe Gallery, Amsterdam

2018

Grey Paintings, Annely Juda Fina Art, London

2017

New Vertical Triangle Paintings, Konrad Fischer Galerie, Berlin

alan charlton, walter storms galerie, Munich


2015

Triangle Paintings, Galerie Tschudi, Zuoz

Triangle Paintings, Gallery Shilla, Daegu, Korea

Crosses and Triangles, Galería Miguel Marcos, Barcelona

Slewe Galerie, Amsterdam

Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf

2014

Annely Juda Fine Art, London

triangle paintings, a arte invernizzi, milan

2013

Patrick de Brock Gallery, Knokke-Zoute

Galleria Alfonso Artiaco, Naples

Diagonal Paintings, Jean Brolly, Paris

Vertical Triangle Paintings, Holger Priess Galerie, Hamburg

2012

Triangle Paintings, Konrad Fischer Galerie, Berlin
 

2011

Gallery Shilla, Daegu, South Korea

New Works, Slewe Gallery, Amsterdam

A Arte Studio Invernizzi, Mailand

Couvent de la Tourette, Éveux

Triangle Paintings, Galerie Tschudi, Zuoz

Alan Charlton – Grid Paintings, Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf

2010

Grid Paintings, Galeria Miguel Marcos, Barcelona

Studio d'Arte Contemporanea Pino Casagrande, Rome

2009

Single vertical and horizontal Paintings, Patrick de Brock Gallery, Knokke-Heist

Johyun Gallery, Busan, South Korea

Alfonso Artiaco, Naples

Painting, Bernier/Eliades Gallery, Athens

Villa Pisani Bonetti, Bagnolo di Lonigo

2008

Konrad Fischer Galerie, Berlin

Museum Kurhaus, Kleve

Caim Gallery, Pittenweem, Scotland

Johyun Gallery, Seoul

2007

Annely Juda Fine Art, London

A arte Studio Invernizzi, Milano

Galerie Jean Brolly, Paris

2006

Künstlerhaus Palais Thurn und Taxis, Bregenz

Outline paintings, Galerie Tschudi, Glarus

Outline Paintings, Dörrie Priess, Berlin

Annandale Gallery, Sydney

2005

Grey maze, Art Unlimited, Art 36 Basel (Annely Juda Fine Art, London)

Lieu d'Art Contemporain, Piet Moget / Layla Moget L'Association L.A.C., Aude Galerie Tschudi, Zuoz

Alfonso Artiaco, Naples

A Arte Studio Invernizzi, Milano

2004

4.5 centimetres, Galeria Foksal, Warsaw

Miguel Marcos, Zaragoza

L.A.C. Lieu d’Art Contemporain, Sigean

Galerie Marcus Richter, Berlin

2003

I want my Paintings to be: abstract, direct, urban, basic, modest, pure, simple, silent, honest, absolute, Galería Miguel Marcos, Barcelona

Galerie Lydie Rekow, Crest

2002

House of Art, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic

Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh

Sleeper Exhibition Space, Edinburgh

Chateau de Fraisse, Fraisse

Agire la Purezza, A arte Studio Invernizzi, Milan

Grey Division, Museum Kurhaus Kleve

2001

Annely Juda Fine Art, London

Galerie Tschudi, Glarus

Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

Early and new paintings, Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf

Stark Gallery, New York

2000

Liliane & Michel Durand-Dessert, Paris

Galerij S65, Aalst, Belgium

Alfonso Artiaco, Pozzuoli/Naples
 

1999

Hohenthal und Bergen, Berlin

Alfonso Artiaco, Naples

Stark Gallery, New York

A Arte Studio Invernizzi, Milan

Galerie Tschudi, Glarus

Espace d'Art Contemporain, Demigny, France

Dörrie *Priess, Hamburg
 

1998

Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf

Here and Now 1, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds
 

1997

Editions, London

Carré d'Art Contemporain de Nimes, France

Pino Casagrande, Rome

Museum Moderner Kunst Landkreis Cuxhaven, Otterndorf, Germany

Kunstverein in Hamburg
 

1996

Galerie Tschudi, Glarus

Annely Juda Fine Art, London

Modulo, Lisbon

Cairn Gallery, Nailsworth

A Arte Studio Invernizzi, Milan

Museum Moderner Kunst Landkreis Cuxhaven, Otterndorf

Grammatik des Sehens und Gestaltens, Kunstverein Hamburg

Vignate-Palazzo Municipale, Vignate, Italy

Galerie Tschudi, Glarus
 

1995

Alfonso Artiaco, Naples

Galerie Stadtpark, Krems

2nd Floor Exhibition Space, Reykjavik

Galerij S65, Aalst
 

1994

Foksal Gallery, Warsaw

Pino Casagrande, Rome

John Gibson Gallery, New York

Galerie nächst St. Stephan, Vienna

A Arte Studio Invernizzi, Milan

Burnett Miller, Los Angeles
 

1993

Victoria Miro, London

Liliane & Michel Durand-Dessert, Paris

Galerie Tschudi, Glarus

Kunsthaus Glarus, Glarus

Hohenthal und Bergen, Munich
 

1992

Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf

Alfonso Artiaco, Pozzuoli / Naples

Cairn Gallery, Nailsworth

Museum Haus Esthers, Krefeld

Burnett Miller, Los Angeles
 

1991

Louver Gallery, New York

Jean Bernier, Athens

Hallen für neue Kunst, Schaffhausen

Galerie Tschudi, Glarus

Institute of Contemporary Art, London

Victoria Miro, London
 

1990

Pierre Huber, Geneva

Galerie Grässlin-Ehrhardt, Frankfurt a.M.

Städelschule, Frankfurt

Alfonso Artiaco, Pozzuoli / Naples

Graeme Murray, Edinburgh

Galleria Victoria Miro, Florence

Rosemarie Schwarzwälder, Vienna

Galerij S 65, Aalst

Galerie Nächst St. Stephan, Vienna
 

1989

Musee d'Art Moderne, Paris

Liliane & Michel Durand-Dessert, Paris

Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf

Delfryd Celf, Caernarfon, Wales

Victoria Miro, London

Delfryd Celf, Amsterdam

Galerie Tschudi, Glarus, Switzerland

Castello di Rivolo, Torino, Italy

Dörrie * Priess, Hamburg
 

1988

Victoria Miro, London

Starkmann, London

Art & Project, Amsterdam

Michael Klein, New York

Galerij S65, Aalst

Palais des Beaux-Arts, Charleroi

Delfryd Celf, Caernarfon, Wales
 

1987

Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Nantes

Musee St. Pierre, Lyon

Delfryd Celf, Caernarfon, Wales
 

1986

Art & Project, Amsterdam

Victoria Miro, London

Liliane & Michel Durand-Dessert, Paris

Galerij S65, Aalst, Belgium

Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf
 

1985

Graeme Murray, Edinburgh

John Hansard Gallery, Southampton
 

1984

Gerald Just, Hannover

Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf
 

1983

Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf

Art & Project, Amsterdam

Wild & Hardebeck, Amsterdam

Liliane & Michel Durand-Dessert, Paris
 

1982

Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf

Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven
 

1981

Lisson Gallery, London
 

1980

Michele Lachowsky, Brussels

Graeme Murray, Edinburgh

Art & Project, Amsterdam

Liliane & Michel Durand-Dessert, Paris
 

1979

Galerie Konrad Fischer, Düsseldorf

Ink, Zurich
 

1978

Ausstellungsraum Ulrich Rückriem, Hamburg

Lisson Gallery, London

Barry Barker, London

Rolf Preisig, Basel

Graeme Murray, Edinburgh

Liliane & Michel Durand-Dessert, Paris
 

1977

Liliane & Michel Durand-Dessert, Paris

Art & Project, Amsterdam

Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf

9 Channel Paintings, each exhibited simultaneously in 9 british city art galleries
 

1976

Leo Castelli Gallery, New York

Stedeljik van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven

Lisson Gallery, London

Rolf Preisig, Basel

Galerie Ghiringhelli-Sperone, Milan
 

1975

Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf

Bruno Bischofsberger, Zurich

Museum of Modern Art, Oxford
 

1974

Gian Enzo Sperone, Torino

Sperone-Fischer Gallery, Rome

Art & Project, Amsterdam
 

1973

Nigel Greenwood, London

Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf
 

1972

Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf

Nigel Greenwood, London

Whitechapel Art Gallery, London 

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2022

Go Back to the Future, eac - Espace de l'Art Concret, Mouans-Sartoux

2021

Alan Carlton - Richard Long, Kunst Museum Winterthur

Varia, galerie jean brolly, Paris

2020

Lines, Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf

2019

Gallery Weekend, Opening Show Neue Grünstrasse 12, Konrad Fischer Galerie Berlin

Alan Charlton & Lesley Foxcroft: Angles, galerie jean brolly, Paris

Collection La composante Peintures, Frac Bretagne, Rennes

Painting with Method: Neoavantgarde Positions from the mumok Collection, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna

Forms of Address, Laure Genillard Gallery, London

2018

50 Years, 50 Artists, Annely Juda Fine Art, London

Talk To Me / 25th Anniversary Exhibition, Von Linthel Gallery, Los Angeles

UNTITLED (MONOCHROME) 1975-2017, Richard Taittinger Gallery, New York
 

2017

Light/Dark, Annely Juda Fine Art, London
 

2016

Wolke und Kristall - Die Sammlung Dorothee und Konrad Fischer, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf

WITH A TOUCH OF PINK - WITH A BIT OF VIOLET - WITH A HINT OF GREEN - Dorothee Fischer in memoriam, Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf

Steven Alders Alan Charlton Ulrich Erben, Walter Storms Galerie, Munich

2015

Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London
 

2014

Des Accords - 4 temps dans la collection Raymond Azibert, Les Abattoirs - Frac Midi-Pyrénées, Toulouse
 

2013

There is no such thing as a good painting about something (Ad Reinhardt)

There is no such thing as a good painting about nothing (Mark Rothko)

Alan Charlton | Sabine Groß | Callum Innes | Ingo Meller | Stephen Prina, Galerie Fricke, Berlin
 

2012

Double Rotation – Werke aus der Sammlung Lafrenz, Neues Museum Weserburg Bremen
 

2011

Alan Charlton / Ulrich Rückriem / Niele Toroni, Galleria A arte Studio Invernizzi, Milan

exploring abstraction, Galerie Tanit, Munich

... von privat, kunstraum no.10, Mönchengladbach

In Parallelo. Una Mostra. Tre Luoghi, Galleria A arte Studio Invernizzi, Milan

Strates Et Arts, Autour De Francois Morellet, Art Attitude Hervé Bize, Nancy
 

2010

one blue moment, Galerie Schütte, Essen

Galerie Tschudi, Zuoz

Painting, Process and Expansion, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna

In-between Minimalisms, Play Van Abbe, Part 2: Time Machines, Stedelijk Van

Abbemuseum, Eindhoven

In-between Minimalisms & Free Sol Lewitt, Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven

Print Works, Johyun Gallery, Seoul

Fondamental Painting, Tate Britain, London

2009

Minimal Shift, Galeria Jana Koniarka, Trnava

Ulrich Rückriem / Alan Charlton, Bernier-Eliades Gallery, Athens

Carl Andre / Balthasar Burkhard / Alan Charlton / Richard Long, Galerie Tschudi, Zuoz

Le Mythe du Monochrome, Espace de l'art concret, Mouans Sartoux

arte povera bis minimal – Einblicke in die Sammlung Lafrenz, Museum Wiesbaden

Visiones de Confin, Institut Valencia d'Art Modern, Valencia

Abstractions (1956-2006), Musee Fabre, Montpellier

Sammlung XXL, Kunstraum Alexander Bürkle, Freiburg
 

2008

Private / Corporate, V Daimler Contemporary, Berlin

Neue Ansichten – Die Sammlung zeitgenössischer Kunst, Museum Kurhaus, Kleve

A Room of One's Own, Museo d´arte contemporanea Castello di Rivoli, Turin

Review, Galerie Neu, Berlin

Alan Charlton und Balthasar Burkhard, Galerie Tschudi, Glarus

series sequence structure, Johyun Gallery, Busan

Charlton, Long, Takeoka, Zeniuk, Galleri Opdahl, Stavanger
 

2007

Beziehungsweise, Galerie Hubert Winter, Vienna

Who's got the Big Picture?, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerpen

Andreas Stalzer - 20 Jahre Werkstatt für Kunstsiebdruck, Nö DOK für moderne Kunst, St. Pölten

Klio. Eine kurze Geschichte der Kunst in Euramerika nach 1945, ZKM, Karlsruhe

Collezione La Gaia, CeSAC, Caraglio

Charlton / Förg / Martin / Toroni, Patrick de Brock Gallery, Knokke-Heist

Balthasar Burkhard, Alan Charlton, Bethan Huws, Petra Wunderlich, Galerie Tschudi, Zuoz

Collectors 1 - Collezione La Gaia, Centro Sperimentale per le Arti Contemporanee, Caraglio

Collectie depot VBVR: Peter Struycken, Rijksmuseum Twenthe, Enschede
 

2006

Michael Biberstein, Alain Charlton, Glen Rubsamen, Galeria Miguel Marcos, Barcelona

regard 02: minimalismes, Espace de l'art concret, Mouans Sartoux

Alan Charlton & Lesley Foxcroft, Galerie Tschudi Glarus, Glarus

La collection de la Societé Génerale, Musée d'Art moderne de Saint-Etienne, Saint-Etienne

Galerie mit Bleistift Fischer - Papierarbeiten aus den 60er und 70er Jahren, Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf

‘Horizontales Verticals Seules’, Musée de Pontoise, Pontoise

‘Dedica 1986-2006: vent’anni della galleria Alfonso Artiaco’, curated by J. Draganovic, Pan, Palazzo delle Arti Napoli, Naples

2005

Alan Charlton & David Tremlett, Galleria A arte Studio Invernizzi, Milano

collectie zomer 2005, de Zomer van Middelburg, Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerpen

after all, constructing an artwork is still building a dream, Galerie Markus Richter, Berlin

Far from the Sea, Künstlerhaus Palais Thurn & Taxis, Bregenz

‘Grey Maze’ Basel Art Fair

2004

dialogue series #2: Alan Charlton / David Tremlett, Galerie Markus Richter, Berlin

Pittura70 - pittura e astrazione analitica, Fondazione Zappettini per l'arte contemporanea, Chiavari, Italy

Galerie Tschudi, Zuoz, Switzerland

Minimal & Concept Art, Museum Moderner Kunst - Stiftung Wörlen, Passau

Die Neue Galerie als Sammlung 1950 - Heute, Neue Galerie Graz, Universalmuseum Joanneum, Graz

Marcus Richter, Berlin

Lieu d'Art Contemporain, Corbieres Maritimes, France

‘L’Art au Futur Anterieur’, Musee de Grenoble, Grenoble, France

‘Beyond Geometry’, Los Angeles County Museum of Modern Art & Miami Art Museum

2003

New presentation of the collection (VI), Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, Antwerp

Collectiepresentatie V - herfst 2003, Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, Antwerp

Collection Display - Positions in Painting: 1970 - 1985, Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven

Corso Terracciano 56, Alfonso Artiaco, Naples
 

2002

Dal colore al segno - Galleria A arte Studio Invernizzi, Milan

Eröffnungsausstellung der Galerie in Zuoz mit den Künstlern der Galerie, Galerie Tschudi, Zuoz

Blast to Freeze, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg

‘Colour – A Life of its Own’, Mucsarnok Kunstnalle, Budapest

The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London

2001

Paintings / Abstract, Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf

à fur et à mesure, une collection, un point de vue, Espace de l'art concret, Mouans Sartoux

Carl Andre / Alan Charlton / Niele Toroni, Centre d'Art Neuchatel, Neuchatel

Anstiftung zu einer neuen Wahrnehmung, Neues Museum Weserburg Bremen

Alan Charlton und Richard Long, Galerie Tschudi, Glarus

‘UK in the Seventies’, Liliane & Michel Durand-Dessert Gallery, Paris

‘Works on Paper from Acconci to Bittel’ Victoria Miro Gallery, London

‘Geometrisk’ Konstruktiv Tendens, Stockholm

2000

Minimal Affect - Selections from the Permanent Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami

Art concret, Espace de l'art concret, Mouans Sartoux

Editionen, Galerie Edition Stalzer, Vienna

NEU 5th Anniversary, Galerie NEU, Berlin

Accord opposés, Centre d'art contemporain Bouvet Ladubay, Saumur
 

1999

collectie herfst 1999 (1), Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, Antwerp

Heads Up - Highlights from the Permanent Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami
 

1998

Galerie Tschudi, Glarus

‘Arterias’, Malmo Konsthall

1997

Le bel aujourd, Institut d'art contemporain Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes, Villeurbanne

Die Erste Sammlung Zu Gast Im Kunsthaus Mürzzuschlag, Kunsthaus Merz, Mürzzuschlag

collection summer 1997, Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, Antwerp

Vignate-Palazzo Municipale, Italy
 

1996

Selection from the collection, Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven

colección permanente. novas incorporacións. colección fundación arco, Centro Galego

de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela

Monochromie - Geometrie, Sammlung Goetz, Munich
 

1995

Au rendez-vous des amis, coll. A. L'H., musée d'art moderne et contemporain, Geneva

Carl Andre / Alan Charlton / Hamish Fulton / Richard Long / Mario Merz / Ulrich Rückriem / Niele Toroni, Galerie Tschudi, Glarus

From Here, Gallery Karsten Schubert, London
 

1994

Vue du collectionneur, Espace de l'art concret, Mouans Sartoux

L'hôtel Bouhier de Savigny reçoit le Frac, FRAC Bourgogne, Dijon

Visione Britannica II, Valentina Moncada Arte Contemporanea, Rome

Die Erste Sammlung von 1988 - 1994, Positionen Aktueller Kunst, Ausstellungsräume der Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, Vienna

‘Punishment & Decoration’, Hohenthal und Bergen, Köln

‘Conversation Pieces’, ICA, Philadelphia

Dorrie + Priess, Hamburg (with Lesley Foxcroft and Jurgen Albrecht)

1993

Artists Choice / Works from the Collection, Southampton City Art Gallery, Southampton

Leo Castelli, New York

‘Marginal’, Galerie Sophia Ungers, Köln

‘Espace Libere Espace de l’Art Concret’, Chateau de Mouans Aartoux, France

‘Singular Dimensions in Painting’, Guggenheim Museum, New York

1992

Instructions and Diagrams, Victoria Miro Gallery, London

Abstrakte Malerei zwischen Analyse und Synthese, Rosemarie Schwarzwälder, Vienna

Burnett Miller, Los Angeles

Das offene Bild, Westfalisches Landesmuseum, Munster

‘La Realidad Desautorizada’, Gamarra Garrigues Gallery, Madrid

1990

Richard Tuttle & Alan Charlton, Victoria Miro Gallery, London

Régions de dissemblance, Musée Départemental d'Art Contemporain de Rochechouart, Rochechouart

Liliane & Michel Durand-Dessert, Paris

‘Hommage aan Vincent van Gogh’, Haags Gemeente Museum, The Hague

Acquistions recentes, Pierre Huber, Geneva

1989

Mentalitäten und Konstruktionen in Arbeiten auf Papier, Rosemarie Schwarzwälder, Vienna

Domenico Bianchi / Alan Charlton / Günther Förg / Barbara Kruger / Toon Verhoef, Museo d'arte contemporanea Castello di Rivoli, Turin

Another Group Show, Galerie Hubert Winter, Vienna

Ulrich Ruckriem & Alan Charlton, Victoria Miro Gallery, London

Prospect 89, Frankfurt

Galerie Nachst St. Stephan, Vienna

1984

At the Serpentine: Graeme Murray Gallery, Serpentine Gallery, London

‘The British Art Show’: Birmingham, Edinburgh, Sheffield, Southampton

Inaugural Exhibition, Castello di Rivoli, Torino

F. Becht Collection, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

ROSC, Dublin

1982

documenta 7, Kassel
 

1981

Through the summer, Lisson Gallery, London
 

1980

Sammlung Panza (II), Kunsthalle Düsseldorf

‘New Spirit in Painting’, Royal Academy, London

‘New Works of Contemporary Art & Music’, Fruit Market Gallery, Edinburgh

Orchard Gallery, Londonderry, Northern Ireland

1979

Through the summer, Lisson Gallery, London

‘Un Certain Art Anglais’,

ARC, Musee d’Art Moderne de la ville de Paris

‘JPZ’, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels

1978

Summer Show, Lisson Gallery, London

‘Fracture du Monochrome Aujourd’hui en Europe’, ARC, Musee d’Art Moderne de la ville de Paris

1977

Group Show, Lisson Gallery, London

‘Cinq Jeune Artistes Anglais’, Culture de Metz Centre, Maison de la Culture de Bourges, France

1975

Fundamentele schilderkunst/Fundamental Painting, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
 

1974

Jo Baer / Alan Charlton / Bob Law / Robert Mangold / Bob Ryman, Lisson Gallery, London

Painting Exhibition, Scottish Arts Council Gallery, Edinburgh

1973

Eine Malerei-Ausstellung mit Malern, die die Malerei in Frage stellen könnten, Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach

‘Prospect 73’, Kunsthalle Dusseldorf

‘7 Aus London’, Kunsthalle Bern

1972

Drawing, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford

Galerie Tschudi: Alan Charlton - It Started with a Chameleon, 2019

Kleve Museum Kurhaus: Alan Charlton. Kleve 2008 / 2009. (cat.)

Annely Juda Fine Art: Alan Charlton: Outline. London 2007.

Mosset, O.: Carl Andre, Alan Charlton, Niele Toroni: une exposition au CAN - Centre d'art Neuchatel. Neuchatel 2002. (Catalogue)

Schneider, E.: Follow me: britische Kunst an der Unterelbe. Stade 1997. (cat.)

Galerie Stadtpark: Quad. Krems 1995. (cat.)

Galeria Foksal: I Am An Artist Who Makes A Grey Painting. Warsaw 1994.

Museum Haus Esters: Alan Charlton. Krefeld 1992. (cat.)

ICA: Exhibition catalogue. London 1991.

Hallen für Neue Kunst. Schaffhausen 1991. (cat.)

The Paragon Press: 10 Grey Squares, Portfolio. London 1991. (cat.)

Fuchs. R. H.: Domenico Bianchi, Alan Charlton, Günther Förg, Barbara Kruger, Toon Verhoef: Castello di Rivoli. Rivoli 1989.

Palais des Beaux-Arts & ARC, Musee d'Art Moderne: Invitation Cards and Installations Photographs of One-Man Exhibitions. Paris 1989.

Durand-Dessert: 50 Grey Books. Paris 1989.

Musee St. Pierre: Corner Paintings 1986. Lyon 1987. (cat.)

John Hansard Gallery: Line Paintings 1983-85. Southampton 1985. (cat.)

Van Abbemuseum: Selected Paintings 1969-81. Eindhoven 1975. (cat.)

Lisson Gallery: 9 channel paintings, each exhibited simultaneously in 9 British city art galleries. London 1977. (cat.)

Museum of Modern Art, Oxford / Stedelijk Van Abbe-Museum, Eindhoven: Alan Charlton. Eindhoven 1975. (cat.)

Van Abbemuseum: Drawings of Paintings. Eindhoven 1975.

Kunsthalle, Bern: Alan Charlton. Bern 1973. (cat.)

Huber, C.: 7 aus London. Bern 1973. (cat.)

Städtisches Museum, Mönchengladbach: Eine Malerei-Ausstellung mit Malern, die die Malerei in Frage stellen könnten. Mönchengladbach 1973. (cat.)

Contemporary Magazine, Issue 82, 2006
John Slyce
Alan Charlton: Vertical Integration


ALAN CHARLTON: VERTICAL INTEGRATION
 
His self-authored epigram reads: ‘Alan Charlton is an artist who makes a grey painting.’ It’s that simple. In conversation, Charlton is, like his work, honest, direct, modest and often given to being quietly profound. Perhaps those characteristics, more so than the mystical, or metaphysical qualities that constitute the partial legacy of the monochrome, are what make writing about his work notoriously difficult. The monochrome can be described more or less fully in words. It was, after all, its proximity to language and inherent ability to serve as a foundation for critique that allowed it to pass from the avant-garde to Minimalism and into Conceptualism.

Alan Charlton’s statement above – borne out by his practice for some 35 years – sets him apart from being a painter and establishes him as an artist instead. He first showed his grey monochromes at Konrad Fischer Galerie in 1972. As with others who have pursued the primal through paint across the last century, Charlton had already begun to paint monochromes two if not three years earlier as a student, and made certain decisions about what he would allow into his practice (and to an extent his life) and what would be kept out. Charlton wanted to make a painting out of the most ordinary and basic materials. He wanted a painting that was abstract, honest, direct, urban, pure, simple, silent and absolute. His first canvases were notched with serial permutations of square apertures that took their measure from the 4.5 cm module of the painting’s edge. That already sounds far too finicky and complicated. The 4.5 cm module is given: this is the ‘edge’ produced by a standard piece of 2x1 inch timber and the stock material of the builder’s trade. After working through other industrial colours – red, brown, black – Charlton settled on grey for its promise of stillness and ordinary status as material.

Positioned as a statement rather than an experiment, Charlton’s grey monochromes are materialist in intention. They offer an eloquent and powerful adventure nonetheless. Their greyness – hanging still and silent like the imprint left on the city sky by its urban industrial zones – is their dominant feature. Charlton treats each element of a work equally: from concept, to the building of a painting, painting the painting, its packing (he builds their individual boxes with equal attention and care), to transporting and installing the works, and designing the catalogue. Wood, canvas, shape, size: all are equal in conceptual weight and treatment. This is not a feature, or fetish of a painterly craft. It’s an expression of Charlton’s work ethic and the conceptual base of his practice. All this is, most simply put, his job. And he treats it as such. Charlton has never managed to bring assistants into his studio and divide or rationalize his production. Workers are more likely to share their lunch and holidays than their tools; for Charlton, wood canvas,
paint and cardboard are his tools. In speaking to Alan Charlton about his practice, I have the feeling that, for him it would be straightforwardly dishonest to do anything other or less. An ethic, when treated as such, takes on a political value and tone. Charlton’s paintings are of the left. They are socialist. While I am reeling out what too many would deem unfashionable anachronisms, I might as well broach the subject of Modernism. Alan Charlton still believes in the promise of its unfinished project. I am still working out the relations of that fact to my belief his painting does not belong wholly to a set of prolonged end-game moves enacted via the monochrome, nor is it fully in line with a practice of painting in some feigned Year Zero. If it were clearly and identifiably either, then there would not be much to look at in 2006. I am convinced that there, in fact, is.

One might start with a plainly stated material object with sculptural overtones. This posits a painting that is not a self-contained vehicle to be looked at, but a work to be seen in relation and aspect to the space it exists in. As self-composed and stoic as they are, Charlton’s paintings are a direct act against composition. To the degree that any composition exists – and there is a great deal in operation – it exists as composition as context and within the installation of works in space. Meaning then resides in the total context, or between the placement of works within a gallery, room or space. For Charlton, making a painting is largely about activating the space that it resides in. A wall is the fundamental support for his painting but his paintings are not ‘wall paintings’. They are, equally and to a similar degree, wall bound but not entirely bound by their wall. Alan Charlton would handle it more eloquently by simply stating that his paintings relate to each other but also to the space in which they are installed. Whether it is a square hole painting, slot painting, channel painting, equal part, single panel, detail, line, or panel painting – this is his nomenclature and developmental typology – the space inside a painting and out is as important as the painting itself.

His paintings in most, if not nearly all cases, are not specially made for a space. Still Charlton aims for each to feel as if they were in their place. Like so much of what he does, it is an approach grounded in honesty: that to the space a work exists in, honesty to the way a painting is made, and an honesty to the way a viewer encounters the work. My earliest and, I should admit, for too long, my only encounter with Alan Charlton’s work was to hear it mentioned as the fodder of tutorial advice lent to bemused and befuddled students of painting. I am preparing myself now to deliver much the same soon; as a material example of a practice that might show one how to constructively and productively fend off exactly such advice and get on with some honest and independent work, thought and labour.

John Slyce is a writer and critic based in London

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