Colin Self : Streetseen, Hearts and Glances

Colin Self (b.1941 Norfolk, England) is a significant figure in British art history. Self studied at Norwich School of Art before attending the Slade School of Art in London during the early 1960s, where he met fellow artists David Hockney and Peter Blake. Born during World War II, his earlier work demonstrated a sensibility to political issues and nuclear paranoia, making him the only British Pop artist to refer explicitly to the Cold War.

The 103 ‘Glances’ exhibited in this show “are more or less an art equivalent to passing a glance at someone in the street or acknowledging or nodding at them without time to have a full conversation.  They’re not sketches but complete records in themselves, maybe some parallel to the way we think, having some 60,000 thoughts a day. Sometimes the items have been lost by somebody or dropped as litter; A bit like historical archaeology where scraps from the past are clues and have significance but they are of our times. Who knows if they owe a little something to Kurt Schwitters, when I see his collages I am left wondering who dropped the tram tickets on the street for him to pick up like clues for a detective…”  

Alongside the ‘Glances’ series The Mayor Gallery has selected 14 artworks including the classic Colin Self imagery of Cinemas, Hotdogs, Ploughman and his more recent lenticular Hearts collages. 

Colin Self is currently participating in The World Goes Pop at the Tate Modern and in International Pop, a touring exhibition at the Walker Art Centre, Dallas Museum of Art and Philadelphia Museum of Art.