John Latham
John Latham
From his 1954 demonstration leading to the foundation of the Institute for the Study of Mental Images (ISMI), Hampshire, when his “quantum of mark” approach to Form as Art was discovered, until his death in 2006, one of John Latham’s major preoccupations was to map the relation between this representation of history and that of scientists approaching the subject from mathematical and common sense perception. Latham’s work was “art” with the Universe as subject matter; the difference found being one of great simplicity. The conventional world picture is in terms of “objects”. Art uses a dimensionality of “event” that is incompatible with “object” language. Hence his construct Event Structure.
Latham’s most famous works are his book-reliefs which he made from the 1950s onwards, both wall-based and free-standing. He was also the first person in the UK to use spray-paint in his work, both in the paintings of the 50s and to make the seminal ‘One Second Drawing’ works of the 70s. There were retrospective exhibitions of his work at Tate Britain in 2005 and at the John Hansard Gallery and P.S.1, New York in 2006.
