John Piper in the 1930s: Abstraction on the Beach (Hardback)

Excellent condition hardback with dust jacket.

Published in the late 1930s, John Piper’s influential essay ‘Abstraction on the Beach‘ argued that abstraction ‘should at least be allowed to feed on a bare beach with tins and broken bottles’ as he believed pure abstraction was ‘undernourished’.

Titled after the Piper essay, Jenkins and Spalding’s book is lavishly illustrated with over 1200 colour and b&w plates. It accompanied the 2003 exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery London and Djanogly Gallery Nottingham. The artwork documents British artist John Piper’s stylistic shift from lyrical realism to pure geometric abstraction and experimental mixed media to his eventual disengagement with pure abstraction. Piper’s use of collage as a primary method of experimentation is beautifully illustrated.