Lots 159, 160 & 166

Installation view, Lots 159, 160 & 166, Barrie Cook, Ivory Tars, 2026

Barrie Cook, Continuum, 1974, Acrylic on canvas, 301 x 423cm

Installation view, Lots 159, 160 & 166, Barrie Cook, Ivory Tars, 2026

Barrie Cook, Pointillist, c.1965, Acrylic on canvas, 228 x 261cm

Barrie Cook, Ziggy Zag, 1972, Acrylic on canvas, 242 x 303cm

Lots 159, 160 & 166
Barrie Cook
Ivory Tars
18.04–24.05.2026

Ivory Tars is pleased to present an exhibition of three paintings by Barrie Cook (b.1929, Birmingham, d.2020, The Lizard), purchased as unstretched lots from an auction in Penzance on the 1st August 2024. 

Due to their size, it is commonplace for large-scale abstract paintings to be removed from their stretchers and rolled for the purposes of transportation and storage. During the time they spend un-stretched however, the value of these canvases alters. No longer viewable in the manner that they were intended to be, they await a moment at which those optimal conditions are once more bestowed upon them. This diminished visual intelligibility is in turn reflected in the economic worth afforded to these unsupported objects.

‘Support’ in this instance can refer to a physical frame that acts to holds a painted surface in tension, but also to a broader system –at once logistical, financial, critical and ideological– that accommodates such tensioned surfaces.

Photo credit: Patrick Jameson