Private View Review - Buren, Barry and LeWitt - Wall Drawings - ALBION - London

Last night, ALBION (www.albion-gallery.com), coated by stripes, mirrors and red print flowers, swarming with artists, dealers, journalists and the like, opened ‘Wall Drawings’, a show that pulls together the work of Daniel Buren, Robert Barry and Sol LeWitt. The trio, who first made waves, albeit geometrical minimalist ones, during the ‘60s, are arguably leaders in the area of conceptual art. Sol LeWitt, who has lived a, frankly, remarkable life – serving in the Korean war, working as a designer at Seventeen magazine and exhibiting beside Jasper Johns in the legendary ‘Sixteen Americans’ – has appeared everywhere from the Guggenheim to Gemeentemuseum, while his fellow conceptualist, the stripe bandit himself, Daniel Buren, (an original guerilla artist, no less) lays claim to the trippy ‘Les Deux Plateaux’, aka 'Buren’s Colums', found in the Palais Royal, Paris. As for Robert Barry, he’s equally as significant, with his word infused artwork that's featured worldwide in galleries such as LA's Museum of Contemporary Art and Galerie Bugdahn und Kaimer in Düsseldorf.

And so to ‘Wall Paintings’... ALBION is ideal for an exhibition such as this. Designed by Norman Foster and Partners, the 11,000 square foot space is phenomenal – an exclusive maze of wide rooms and corridors, creating the perfect home for a conceptual show. The main corridor, the gallery’s spine, is currently home to Buren and LeWitt’s work, with bright primary coloured walls and opposing silvered ones. This walkway forks into two separate spaces, introducing Barry’s offerings, which add a clean-cut addition to the compact chaos elsewhere. In fact, ironically, Burden, Barry and LeWitt, may be from the same school of thought, but their work is quietly contrary and, in that, works well as a whole in ‘Wall Drawings’.

Whatever your views on minimalist, conceptual art, it has a place, point and reason and can hardly be ignored. Since first appearing, its influence has been far reaching – whether it be in graphic, fashion or interior design, contemporary or mainstream – its effect plain to see. If you don’t believe me, head down to ‘Wall Drawings’ at ALBION before March 24th, when the gallery will fold up and change into some other style, one that we hope will be equally as inspiring.