Although Bob Law is considered to be one of the founding fathers of British minimalism, he had no formal training other than brief sojourns as a carpenter and an architectural designer.
His interest in watercolour painting took him to St. Ives where he met Bernard Leach, Peter Lanyon and Roger Hilton. The Cornish landscape inspired his first minimalist works; simple marks on paper describing the outline and shape of the surrounding fields.
In the late 60s Law moved to the black paintings that were exhibited in 1974 at the Oxford Museum of Modern Art and subsequently the Whitechapel Art Gallery (both exhibitions under the directorship of Sir Nicholas Serota).
Law’s oeuvre and reputation evolved throughout the 1980s, and he turned to making sculpture which harked back to his early experiments with carpentry.
There is now a strong revival of interest and growing demand for his work from both museums and collections worldwide. His work is included in many public museum throughout the world, including that of the Tate, British Museum and The Guggenheim Museum, New York.
[text via Richard Saltoun Gallery]