Cyril Mann: The Solid Shadow Paintings

About

Mann’s solid shadow paintings use bold colours and crisp outlines to give ordinary objects extraordinary force and weight - a style and subject matter embraced a decade later by Pop Art.

Throughout his career Mann observed the effects of natural light. He started painting shadows after moving into a dingy flat above a gold bullion dealer in Old Street, London. With barred windows severely restricting the amount of sunlight entering the flat, Mann was forced to paint under the glare of a lightbulb. He observed the line that connects an object with its shadow and chose to depict it as a solid object in its own right, as substantial as the bottles, plates and fruit on the table before him.

Cyril Mann: The Solid Shadow Paintings will also include works from the artist’s estate - many on display for the first time. Later work by Patrick Caulfield, Michael Craig-Martin and the American artist John Wesley will also be on display, demonstrating how the solid shadow paintings prefigured their saturated colours and boldly delineated style.