The Spirit of Summer

Alon Zakaim Fine Art is delighted to present The Spirit of Summer – an exhibition that playfully celebrates many of the themes and colours that are associated with the summer season. Across two floors, the show features an eclectic selection of works from the Post-Impressionists, including Henri Lebasque and Gustave Loiseau, to contemporary artists such as Damien Hirst and Jaume Plensa. The varied assemblage of paintings, works on paper, and sculptures demonstrate how artists have experimented with media, colour, and shape to convey—advertently or not—the season of sun, pleasure, and excursion. The exhibition aims to facilitate the evocation of personal summer memories for viewers, offering a sensory escape through art.

The show opens with a striking juxtaposition of monumental abstract works by Jordy Kerwick, Alfred Jensen, and Auguste Herbin. Although united by their vibrant colour palettes and geometric forms, these works constitute entirely disparate examples of abstraction: unlike Jensen and Herbin, who created visual lexicons of symbols that can be translated in their art, Kerwick blended abstract elements with recognisable, figurative forms. Their distinct approaches present viewers with a captivating dialogue about artistic preoccupations with abstraction between the mid-twentieth century and today. The concentric yellow circle depicted in the centre of Jensen’s work echoes that in Calder’s Composition, displayed alongside. Calder paints his circle black, but its raised position over the vibrant plane below ostensibly takes on the guise of a sun, perhaps one that has eclipsed. Displayed directly opposite as the monumental counterpart to Kerwick, Robert Cottingham emphasis lay on photorealism to convey, with a high degree of accuracy and detail, the rapidly evolving urbanisation of American cities. In Rat, the patriotic bunting and American flags sway as a gentle summer breeze pervades the composition. Alongside Cottingham, two ‘reverspective’ works by Patrick Hughes play on the concept of plasticity to elicit illusionistic effects that challenge the conventual limits of traditional works of art.

The exhibition continues with a grouping of works that converge around a nautical theme, evocative of beach settings and summer holidays. A charming oil on board by Le Corbusier, which depicts a seashell and boat, is paired with a bronze sculpture of a siren by Henri Laurens. Downstairs, Lebasque’s Post-Impressionist rendition of a port scene is juxtaposed with a post-cubist sculpture of a ship by Jean Chauvin, instigating a dialogue between the more traditional and modern approaches to the theme. These works are complimented by those of an agricultural subject, showcasing the summer climate and its impact on the land.

The show concludes with a look at the ways in which contemporary artists have employed bright, vivid colours to capture the essence of summer. Ukrainian artist Ivan Turetskyy’s dynamic compositions, comprised of sinuous waves of colour and light, are admired for their captivating and highly-complex structures. While ethereal in subject, the technique of his painting method, textured with layers of impasto, bestows his works with an air of tactility and a rather earthy quality. These bright waves recall the sensation of summer days in the soaring heat with a soothing breeze. The transitory event of a rainbow is frozen in the neighbouring works of Hughes and Mauro Perucchetti. The bright, varied colours encapsulate the essence of summer as a time of joy, encouragement, and excitement.

The Spirit of Summer will run at Alon Zakaim Fine Art, 27 Cork Street, London W1S 3NG, from Tuesday 18 June – Friday 16 August 2024. Entry is free and the gallery opening hours are 09.00 – 18.00, Mon – Fri.

Please contact the gallery for further information.