Norman Dilworth (1931-2023) was an English

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

, born in

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

. His work is systematic, constructivist and concrete. It is mainly exhibited and appreciated in continental Europe, where it is held in many national collections.

Biography

Norman Dilworth was born on 12 January 1931 in Wigan, Lancashire, where he attended Wigan Art School from 1949 to 1952. From 1952 to 1956 he studied at the

Slade School of Fine Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

, where he won the Tonks Prize in 1955. The following year he was awarded the Drawing Prize by the

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

and a French Government scholarship to study in Paris from 1956 to 1957, where he befriended

Alberto Giacometti Alberto Giacometti (, , ; 10 October 1901 – 11 January 1966) was a Swiss sculptor, painter, draftsman and printmaker. Beginning in 1922, he lived and worked mainly in Paris but regularly visited his hometown Borgonovo to see his family and ...

. His work at this time took the form of paintings and drawings in black and white, using geometric forms that played with the viewer's perception. During the fifties, Dilworth was an important figure in contemporary art, exhibiting in the Young Contemporaries Exhibitions in 1953, 1954 and 1955 and the John Moores Exhibition in 1959. Dilworth's work became associated with

Kinetic Kinetic (Ancient Greek: κίνησις “kinesis”, movement or to move) may refer to: * Kinetic theory of gases, Kinetic theory, describing a gas as particles in random motion * Kinetic energy, the energy of an object that it possesses due to i ...

art and in 1966 he took part in an exhibition alongside Bridget Riley and

Michael Kidner Michael James Kidner (11 September 1917 – 2009) was a British op artist. Active from mid-1960s, Kidner was an early exponent of the genre. Through his interest in mathematics, he was part of the Constructivism (art), Constructivism moveme ...

at the

Herbert Art Gallery Herbert Art Gallery & Museum (also known as the Herbert) is a museum, art gallery, records archive, learning centre, media studio and creative arts facility on Jordan Well, Coventry, England. Overview The museum is named after Sir Alfred Herb ...

, Coventry. Since the 1960s, Dilworth had lived in England, teaching in several colleges. In 1971 the

British Arts Council The Arts Council of Great Britain was a non-departmental public body dedicated to the promotion of the fine arts in Great Britain. It was divided in 1994 to form the Arts Council of England (now Arts Council England), the Scottish Arts Council (l ...

awarded him first prize for his sculpture entitled ''Haverfordwest''. Later that year he decided to move to

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

after a successful solo exhibition in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

. By now, his work had moved from

to Constructivist art. In 1973, Dilworth took part in ''4 English Systematic Artists'', the second group exhibition of the

Systems Group The Systems Group was a group of British artists working in the Constructivist art, constructivist tradition. The group was formed after an inaugural Helsinki exhibition in 1969 entitled ''Systeemi•System''. The exhibition coordinator Jeffrey St ...

. Although he chose not to become a member of the group, his work has a strong affinity with the group. In 1974 he won first prize for ''Fountain for Cardiff '' by the Welsh Arts Council. In 1980, Dilworth assisted

Gerhard von Graevenitz Gerhard von Graevenitz (19 September 1934 Schilde, Prignitz/Mark Brandenburg – 20 August 1983, Habkern/Traubachtal) was a German kinetic artist, co-founding member of the Nouvelle Tendance and member of the op-art movement. He also belong ...

in curating the exhibition ''Pier+Ocean'', in which Dilworth's own work was included together with other Constructionist and

artists. This "ambitious and, as it turned out, controversial" group exhibition explored the relationship between Constructivist art and

Land Art Land art, variously known as Earth art, environmental art, and Earthworks, is an art movement that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, largely associated with Great Britain and the United StatesArt in the modern era: A guide to styles, schools, & mov ...

, Arte Povera,

Minimalism In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Don ...

and Conceptualism. When Dilworth moved to

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Pref ...

in France from Amsterdam in 2002, the

Stedelijk Museum The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

in Amsterdam staged a farewell exhibition. Dilworth's first retrospective in France took place between 8 July and 30 September 2007 at the Museé Matisse in Le Cateau-Cambrésis.

Personal life

Before 1982, Dilworth lived in London. After 1982 he lived in Amsterdam, moving to Lille in 2002. Dilworth was married in 1958 to Mary Webber. The marriage was dissolved in 1976. He remarried in 1982 to Christine Cadin. Dilworth died in Lille on 25 January 2023, leaving two daughters and a son from the first marriage, and two sons from the second.

Tributes

The commune of

Paris-Plage Le Touquet-Paris-Plage (; pcd, Ech Toutchet-Paris-Plache; vls, 't Oekske, older nl, Het Hoekske), commonly referred to as Le Touquet (), is a commune near Étaples, in the Pas-de-Calais department, northern France. It has a population of 4, ...

, which hosted the works of Dilworth, paid homage to him by laying a plaque, with the artist's signature and handprints, on the ground of the Garden of Arts.

Solo exhibitions

* Redmark Gallery (London) 1968 * Galerie Nouvelles Image (The Hague) 1970 * Lucy Milton Gallery (London) 1973 * Galleria Primo Peano (with Peter Lowe) (Rome) 1975 * Art Affairs, Amsterdam (Netherlands) 1995 * Durhammer Gallery, Frankfurt (Germany) 1995 * Art Affairs, Amsterdam (Netherlands) 1997 * Magnus Aklundh Gallery, Lund (Sweden) 1998 * Contemporary art space, Demigny (France) 1998 * Artist in residence, Guernsey (Channel Islands) 1999 * Art Affairs, Amsterdam (Netherlands) 2000 * Museum Het Mondriaanhuis, Amersfoort (Netherlands) 2001 * Contemporary art space, Demigny (France) 2001 * Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (Netherlands) 2002 * Het Glasen Huis, Amsterdam (Netherlands) 2003 * Museum of Fine Arts and Lace, Calais (France) 2005 * Espace Lumière, Hénin-Beaumont (France) 2005 * Oniris Gallery, Rennes (France) 2006 * Bouvet Ladubay Saumur Contemporary Art Center (France) 2006 * Galerie Frontière$, Hellemmes (France) 2006 * Sculpture / Art, Paris tour at the Grand-Palais, Oniris stand 2007 and 2008 * Retrospective at the Matisse Museum / Cateau-Cambrésis 2007

Group exhibitions

*1972: ''4 Artists'' Galerie Nouvelle Image, The Hague *1973: ''4 English Systematic Artists'', Amsterdam *1974: ''British Painting '74'', Hayward, London *1980: ''Pier + Ocean: construction in the art of the seventies'', Hayward, London/Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo.

Art collections

* Villa Datris Foundation for Contemporary Sculpture, L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, France * National Contemporary Art Fund, La Défense, France * Matisse Museum, Cateau-Cambrésis, France * Grenoble Museum, France * Montbéliard Museum, France * City of Valenciennes, France * Tate Gallery, London * The British Council, UK * Art Council of Great Britain * Manchester City Art Gallery, UK * National Collection, Warsaw, Poland * Stzuki Museum. Museum of Modern Art, Łodź, Poland * City of Amsterdam, Holland * City of Dordrecht, Holland

References

Other sources

"Norman Dilworth obituary"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 13 February 2023 (Charles Darwent)
Norman DILWORTH on the Galerie Oniris website
which regularly exhibits the work of Norman Dilworth since 2004

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dilworth, Norman English artists Concrete art Constructivism (art) Abstract art Modern art Artists from Lancashire People from Wigan Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art 1931 births 2023 deaths