Keith Tyson
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Keith Tyson (born Keith Thomas Bower,Keith Tyson
Mead Carney Fine Art. Retrieved 9 June 2012.
23 August 1969) is an English artist. In 2002, he was the winner of the
Turner Prize The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award). ...
. Tyson works in a wide range of media, including painting,
drawing Drawing is a Visual arts, visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface, or a digital representation of such. Traditionally, the instruments used to make a drawing include pencils, crayons, and ink pens, some ...
and installation. His artistic philosophy rejects the notion of a fixed self or a singular artistic style.


Early life

Bower moved to
Dalton-in-Furness Dalton-in-Furness is a town in Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria, England, north east of Barrow-in-Furness. Along with the rest of the Furness peninsula, it was historically part of Lancashire. It is in the parish of Dalton Town with Newton, a ...
when he was four, adopting his stepfather's surname Tyson. He showed an interest in and talent for art at an early age, having been inspired by his "very creative and enthusiastic" primary school art teacher. However he left school and took employment as a fitter and turner with VSEL (Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd., now
BAE Systems BAE Systems plc is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Aerospace industry, aerospace, military technology, military and information security company, based in London. It is the largest manufacturer in Britain as of 2017. It is ...
) in
Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town and civil parish (as just "Barrow") in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the county of Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borou ...
. In 1989, he began an art foundation course at the Carlisle College of Art, and the following year he moved south to take up a place on experimental Alternative Practice degree at The Faculty of Arts and Architecture,
University of Brighton The University of Brighton is a public university based in Brighton on the south coast of England. Its roots can be traced back to 1858 when the Brighton School of Art was opened in the Royal Pavilion. It achieved university status in 1992. T ...
(1990–93).


Career

During the 1990s, Tyson's practice was dominated by the ''Artmachine'', through which Tyson explored his ongoing interest in randomness, causality, and the question of how things come into being. The Artmachine was a method Tyson developed which used a combination of computer programmes, flow charts and books in order to generate chance combinations of words and ideas, which were then realised in practice as artworks in a wide range of media. The results of the Artmachine became the basis of Tyson's earliest exhibited artworks; ''The Artmachine Iterations'', as these works became known, established Tyson's reputation in the UK and internationally as an original artist and thinker, and by 1999 he had mounted solo exhibitions in London, New York, Paris and
Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...
, as well as contributed to group shows throughout Europe, North America and Australia. From 1999, Tyson's interests practice turned from the Artmachine towards an artistic approach which explored the same thematic terrain, but this time directly by his own hand. The first such body of work was entitled ''Drawing and Thinking''. Many of these works were installed in the international exhibition in the 2001
Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...
In 2002, Tyson mounted ''Supercollider'' at South London Gallery and then the
Kunsthalle Zürich The Kunsthalle Zürich is a kunsthalle (a contemporary art exhibition centre) in Zürich, Switzerland. Founded in 1985, it is located on Limmatstrasse, near the city centre. A number of temporary exhibitions are organized each year. Directors * ...
in
Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
. The name of the exhibition, derived from the popular name for the
CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in Meyrin, western suburb of Gene ...
particle accelerator in
Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...
, indicated the significance of scientific ways of seeing and thinking about the world to Tyson's art at this time. In December 2002, Tyson was awarded the British visual arts award, the
Turner Prize The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award). ...
. The other shortlisted artists that year were Fiona Banner,
Liam Gillick Liam Gillick (born 1964) is a British artist. In the 1990s he was one of the informal Young British Artists group; like many of them, he took a degree in fine art from Goldsmiths' College, in London. He was among the artists included in the ...
and Catherine Yass. The Turner Prize was notorious that year not so much for the controversial nature of the work of the shortlisted artists as in previous years, but because of the comments of then Culture Minister
Kim Howells Kim Scott Howells (born 27 November 1946) is a Welsh Labour Party former politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Pontypridd from 1989 to 2010, and held a number of ministerial positions within the Blair and Brown governments. ...
. His comments that the Turner Prize exhibition at
Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in En ...
consisted of "cold, mechanical, conceptual bullshit" were greeted with both approval and criticism in the media. In 2005, The following year, Tyson first exhibited his most monumental and ambitious work to date, ''Large Field Array'', in the
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, also known as the Louisiana, is an art museum located north of Copenhagen, Denmark. Attracting over 700,000 guests annually, the Louisiana is Scandinavia's most visited museum for Modern art, modern and contempor ...
in
Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
, which then travelled to the De Pont Museum of Contemporary Art in the
Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
and The
Pace Gallery The Pace Gallery is a contemporary and modern art gallery with 9 locations worldwide. It was founded in Boston by Arne Glimcher in 1960. His son, Marc Glimcher, is now president and CEO. Pace Gallery operates in New York, London, Hong Kong, ...
in New York. In 2009 Tyson's work was shown at the Hayward Gallery as part of the group exhibition "Walking in My Mind".


Artworks


''The Artmachine Iterations''

Only a fraction of the instructions issued from the Artmachine were realised as artworks (the Artmachine generated around 12,000 proposals which are still unmade), but many of the playful and inventive mixed media works that were created include a twenty-four foot painting made from bathroom sealant, and a painting using toothpaste and music CDs.


''Large Field Array''

Described by Walter Robinson as "nothing less than a complete Pop cosmology",Walter Robinson, 'Weekend Update', Artnet.com, 11 November 2007
/ref> ''Large Field Array'' comprises 300 modular units, most formed from into implied 2-foot cubes; the cubes are arranged into a grid occupying both the floor and walls of a gallery when installed. Each highly crafted cubic sculpture represents a unique yet highly recognizable feature of the world, from popular culture to natural history. Sculptures as diverse as a representation of American
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
’s wedding cake, a chimney with a bird on top of it with a satellite dish, and a chair made of skeletons, were all constructed and arranged. The installation invited the viewer/participant to negotiate his or her own path through a seemingly random assortment of images and ideas, echoing the mental processes which create free associations between disparate phenomena which so fascinate Tyson.


''The Nature Paintings'' (2005–2008)

A mixture of paints, pigments and chemicals are allowed to interact in specific ways upon an acid primed aluminium panel. The combined processes of
gravity In physics, gravity (), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction, is a fundamental interaction, a mutual attraction between all massive particles. On Earth, gravity takes a slightly different meaning: the observed force b ...
,
chemical reaction A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the chemistry, chemical transformation of one set of chemical substances to another. When chemical reactions occur, the atoms are rearranged and the reaction is accompanied by an Gibbs free energy, ...
,
temperature Temperature is a physical quantity that quantitatively expresses the attribute of hotness or coldness. Temperature is measurement, measured with a thermometer. It reflects the average kinetic energy of the vibrating and colliding atoms making ...
, hydrophobia and
evaporation Evaporation is a type of vaporization that occurs on the Interface (chemistry), surface of a liquid as it changes into the gas phase. A high concentration of the evaporating substance in the surrounding gas significantly slows down evapora ...
simultaneously conspire to create surfaces reminiscent of a wide range of natural forms and landscapes. In this respect, the paintings seem to be depict nature, but they are also created by nature as well.


''Studio Wall Drawings'' (1997–present)

Collectively these works on paper represent Tyson’s sketchbook or journal. Each ‘Wall Drawing’ is made on a sheet of paper measuring 158 cm x 126 cm, the same dimensions as a small wall in Tyson's original studio where he used to draw-up notes. Over the years these sheets have recorded his ideas, emotional tone and mood, visits people made to the studio, world events and even economic fluctuations. They are often exhibited in large non-chronological grids to form solid walls of diverse images, and text.


References


Further reading

;Solo and group exhibition catalogues *''Cloud Choreography and Other Emergent Systems''
Parasol Unit
foundation for contemporary art, London, 2009 *''Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art'', Barbican Art Gallery, London, 2008 *''Keith Tyson, Studio Wall Drawings 1997–2007'', Haunch of Venison, London, 2007 *''Keith Tyson, Large Field Array'', Louisiana Museum, Denmark, 2006 *''How to Improve the World: 60 Years of British Art'', Hayward Gallery, London, 2006 *''Keith Tyson, Geno Pheno'', PaceWildenstein, New York/Haunch of Venison, London, 2005 *''Keith Tyson, History Paintings'', 2005 *''Dionysiac'', Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2005 *''Head to Hand, Drawings by Keith Tyson'', Thea Westreich & Ethan Wagner, New York, 2002 *''Keith Tyson'', Kunsthalle Zürich, Switzerland, 2002 *''Supercollider'', South London Gallery, London, 2002 *''Turner Prize Exhibition'', Tate Britain, London, 2002 *''Public Affairs'', Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland, 2002 *''Century City: Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis'', Tate Modern, London, 2000 *''Over the Edges'', SMAK-Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Gent, 2000 *''Dream Machines'', Hayward Gallery, London, 2000 ;Secondary works *Mark Rappolt, 'Life, the Universe and Everything', ''Art Review'', February 2007 *Rachel Withers, ‘Keith Tyson’, ''Artforum'', March 2005 *Marcus Verhagen, 'Keith Tyson', ''Art Monthly'', December 2004 - January 2005 *Michael Archer, 'Primordial Soups', ''Parkett'' 71, 2004 *Ethan Wagner and Keith Tyson, 'A Conversation', ''Parkett'' 71, 2004 *Hans Rudolph Reust, 'Fabulous Art','' Parkett'' 71, 2004 *Tony Barrell, ‘Rising to the Equation’, ''Sunday Times Magazine'', 30 November 200

*Virginia Button, ''The Turner Prize: Twenty Years'', Tate Publishing Ltd, Tate Publishing, 2003 *Matthew Collings, ''Art Crazy Nation: The Post Blimey Art World'', 21 Publishing Ltd, 2001 *Louisa Buck, ''Moving Targets 2, A Users Guide to British Art Now'', Tate Publishing, London, 2000


External links

*
Keith Tyson at The Pace Gallery



Keith Tyson at ARNDT Berlin

Keith Tyson interview

Keith Tyson at Tullie House
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tyson, Keith 1969 births Living people English contemporary artists English installation artists Turner Prize winners Alumni of the University of Cumbria Alumni of the University of Brighton People from Ulverston