Belgrave St Ives - Modern & Contemporary Art

Brian Rice

Brian Rice (b.1936)

Studied: Goldsmiths College, Yeovil School of Art

Various lecturing and teaching posts 1959 - 2001
Chairman of the Printmakers Council of Great Britain 1974 - 1977
Print Prize, Westward Television Open Exhibition - 1971
Prizewinner, Arnolfini Gallery Open Painting Exhibition - 1963

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Selected Recent Exhibitions

2019

'Brian Rice, Recent Paintings', Belgrave St Ives

2016

Resionne of Paintings, Drawings, Collages and Studies 1952 - 2016, The Art Stable, Dorset
Paintings from 1961-62, London Art Fair with Redfern Gallery and Waterhouse & Dodd

2015

The Sixties Art of Brian Rice and Richard Rome, University of Kent with Redfern Gallery

2014
'Brian Rice: 50 Years of Printmaking', Belgrave St Ives'Brian Rice - Early Works 1959-1970', Redfern Gallery, London

2013
'Brian Rice, Ursula Leach RE, Tony Martin' Hightgate Contemporary Arts, London

2012
'Circles and Tangents', Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum, Salisbury, Wiltshire
Winter Exhibition, Belgrave St Ives

2011

Winter Exhibition: Paintings and 3D Works by Fifty Contemporary Artists', Belgrave St Ives
Modern and Contemporary Prints, The Art Stable, Child Okeford, Dorset

2010

20th Century and Contemporary Prints, The Art Stable, Child Okeford, Dorset
Shirley Crowther Art, (Artizan Prints), Jointure Studio, Ditchling, Sussex
Postwar Abstract, Belgrave Gallery, St. Ives, Cornwall
Salmagundi, Belgrave Gallery, St. Ives, Cornwall
Contemporary Art and Sculpture, The Gallery, Hilfield Manor, Hilfield, Dorset
2009

Large Paintings, Lighthouse, Poole, Dorset.
New Small Works (with Jacy Wall) Black Swan Arts, Frome, Somerset
Paintings 2000-2009, The Art Stable, Child Okeford, Dorset
Recent Small Works (with Jacy Wall) Town Mill Gallery, Lyme Regis, Dorset
2008
Recent Small Works (with Jacy Wall) Atrium Gallery, Bournemouth University, Bournemouth, Dorset.
Paintings (with Jacy Wall), Chard Art, Chard, Somerset
Constructions 1963-65 Westbrook Gallery, London2006
In and Out of St Ives, Belgrave Gallery, St Ives
Recent Large Paintings, Bridport Art Centre, Bridport, Dorset
Recent Paintings, Chard Art, Chard, Somerset
The Last Picture Show, New Street Gallery, Plymouth
Arflex, Tokyo and Osaka, Japan

2005
British Abstract and Constructed Art from a Decade. J.H.W. Fine Art, London
Somerville Gallery, Plymouth, Devon. (T.Frost, A.Frost, B.Rice)
Christmas Exhition, Lemon Street Gallery, Truro, Cornwall

2004
Atrium Gallery, University of Bournemouth, Bournemouth, Dorset
Atrium Gallery, University of Bournemouth, Bournemouth, Dorset
At Home with Art, The Lionel Phillips Collection, The Atkinson Gallery, Somerset
Haunt, Sherborne House, Sherborne, Dorset
Royal West of England Academy, Open Print 2004, Clifton, Bristol
Casa Mia, Tokyo, Modern Life and Art.

2003
Retrospective Exhibition, Plymouth City Museum & Art Gallery, Devon
Atkinson Gallery, Millfield, Street, Somerset
Start a collection, Messum's, Cork Street,
Bournemouth University, Art Loan Collection, Poole House, Bournemouth, Dorset

2002
Retrospective Exhibition, Bridport Art Centre, Bridport, Dorset
St Ives Artists, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, Devon
Royal West of England Academy, Autumn Exhibition, Clifton, Bristol
Royal West of England Academy, Autumn Exhibition, Clifton, Brisn

2001
Messum's, Cork Street, London
The South West Academy, Open Exhibition, Exeter, Devon
The South West Academy, Open Exhibition, Exeter, Devon

2000
The National Print Exhibition, The Mall Galleries, London
Royal West of England Academy, Open Print Exhibition, Bristol.
The Royal Academy, Summer Exhibition, London
Royal West of England Academy, 148th Autumn Exhibition, Bristol

Work exhibited nationally and internationally since 1961

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Publication

Brian Rice: Catalogue Raisonné of Prints 1953 - 2013 editied by Silvie Turner, Sansom & Company Ltd 2013

Brian Rice: Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, Drawings, Collages and Studies 1952-2016 , edited by Silvie Turner, with essay by Andrew Lambirth, Sansom & Company Ltd 2016

Brian Rice: An Overview

Brian Rice's career has covered a fascinating period of Modern Art in Britain. His early art training was at his local art school in Yeovil, Somerset where he learnt traditional printmaking techniques such as relief printing and lithography, along with other practical subjects. This was followed by a year at Goldsmiths College in London where he made wood engravings as well as other prints under the influence of British Romanticism prevalent there at the time.

After a brief spell of teaching, Rice left the UK for a tour of Europe and Morocco where the stimulation of the varied landscape and colour convinced him that art was going to be his path for the future. Returning to London, Rice quickly became immersed in the post-austerity creative force that swept through fashion and media soon to become famously labelled the 'Swinging Sixties'.

By 1963 Rice's work was gaining recognition as his individual voice was taking shape, one of the first examples in print form been formalist images of simple abstract shapes and basic colours known as the Japanese Series. This was the start of a decade of the production of work in both painting and printmaking where Rice embraced the zeitgeist of Pop and Post-Pop culture while applying his deep-rooted sensibility of the concrete in constructivist, non-representational art. Screen printing became Rice's main print medium during this period, the stencil technique well suited to the simple flat areas of colour in works like 'Red Assembly' (1964). The work quickly became very sought- after and was often seen in fashion magazines or in the back drop of TV and theatre shows.

Rice continued to experiment through the 1970s in what was a challenging time for artists working in traditional media and he eventually decided to retreat from the art world and move back to the West Country to pursue his bond with the land whilst maintaining his teaching commitment at Brighton Polytechnic. It was during this 'sojourn' that Rice's interest in the remains of ancient culture through the archeology of artefacts and earthworks was fully awakened and fuelled his second great burst of creativity that continues to the present. The remains of rock engravings, field systems and buildings from pre-history can be seen as the source of many later works including 'Ziger-Zager' 1992, The King's Tomb' 1995 and 'Artalla' 2006.

For over 50 years Rice has explored the print medium in parallel to his practice as painter. In more recent work he has often combined the 2 mediums, for example where print, paint and texture go to form a complete work as in the 'Pavilion' (2009) series.

Brian Rice is well represented in public and private collections including the Tate Gallery. For a comprehensive exhibition history see belgravestives.co.uk/brianrice/biography.