John Aubrey Clarendon Latham, (23 February 1921 – 1 January 2006) was a

Northern Rhodesia Northern Rhodesia was a British protectorate in south central Africa, now the independent country of Zambia. It was formed in 1911 by amalgamating the two earlier protectorates of Barotziland-North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesi ...

n-born British conceptual artist.

Life and work

Latham was born in

to the

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

er and colonial administrator Geoffrey Latham. He was educated in England at

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of ...

. In the Second World War he commanded a motor torpedo boat in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. After the war he studied art, first at the Regent Street Polytechnic and then at the Chelsea College of Art and Design. He married fellow artist and collaborator

Barbara Steveni Barbara Steveni (21 August 1928 – 16 February 2020) was a British conceptual artist who was based in London. Steveni was the co-founder and director of the Artist Placement Group (APG), which ran from the 1960s to the 1990s. The APG's goal wa ...

in Westminster in 1951. The spray can became Latham's primary medium, as can be seen in ''Man Caught Up with a Yellow Object'' (oil painting, 1954) in the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

collection. In addition to spray paint, Latham tore, sawed, chewed and burnt books to create collage material for his work, such as ''Film Star'' (1960). Latham's event-based art was influential in

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

. In 1966, he took part in the Destruction in Art Symposium in London led by

Gustav Metzger Gustav Metzger (10 April 1926, Nuremberg – 1 March 2017, London) was a German artist and political activist who developed the concept of Auto-Destructive Art and the Art Strike. Together with John Sharkey, he initiated the Destruction in A ...

along with

Fluxus Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finished product. Fluxus ...

artists such as

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up i ...

Wolf Vostell Wolf Vostell (14 October 1932 – 3 April 1998) was a German painter and sculptor, considered one of the early adopters of video art and installation art and pioneer of Happenings and Fluxus. Techniques such as blurring and Dé-coll/age are ...

and Al Hansen. His "skoob" ("books" written backwards) works using books or materials derived from them had the power to shock. He moved from collages to towers of books which he then burnt, awakening uncomfortable echoes of the Nazi regime's public burning of banned books. From 1983 Latham lived and worked at his house, Flat Time House in

Peckham Peckham () is a district in southeast London, within the London Borough of Southwark. It is south-east of Charing Cross. At the 2001 Census the Peckham ward had a population of 14,720. History "Peckham" is a Saxon place name meaning the vil ...

. In 1991 he produced ''God is Great'' (no. 2), a conceptual artwork featuring copies of the Bible, Quran, and a volume of the Talmud, each cut in two and attached to a sheet of glass. In 2005

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 ...

held an exhibition of Latham's work. Latham died at Kings College Hospital, Camberwell, on 1 January 2006. In 2010 ''John Latham: Canvas Events'' was published by

Ridinghouse Ridinghouse is a British book publisher specialising in art. Ridinghouse’s publications are distributed by Cornerhouse in the UK and Europe, and by RAM Publications + Distribution, Inc. in North America. Company history Ridinghouse was foun ...

. In 2016 the Henry Moore Institute presented ''A Lesson in Sculpture with John Latham'', an exhibition addressing Latham's visionary contribution to the study of sculpture, bringing sixteen works by Latham, spanning 1958 to 2005, into conversation with sixteen sculptures by artists working across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Like Latham, members of the rock band

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philosophical lyrics an ...

attended Regent Street Polytechnic. In 2016 Pink Floyd released their collection of rare and unreleased recorded early material in the box set ''

The Early Years 1965–1972 ''The Early Years 1965–1972'' is a box set that details the early work of the English rock band Pink Floyd released on 11 November 2016. It was released by Pink Floyd Records with distribution held by Warner Music for the UK and Europe and So ...

''. On the second CD of the collection is an extended instrumental improvisation, similar to that of the middle section of their performances of " Interstellar Overdrive", which were recorded in 1967 as a soundtrack for Latham's 1962 film ''Speak''. The piece is split across nine tracks on the CD. In 2017, Latham's work featured in the main exhibition of the 57th

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

, ''Viva Arte Viva''.

References

Sources

* Hamilton, R. (1986) John Latham. In: ''Lisson Gallery (1987) John Latham: Early Works''. London: Lisson Gallery.

External links

John Latham's Flat Time HouseJohn Latham's Online Archive Project (Ligatus, University of the Arts London)Lisson Gallery
*Latham's website and discussion of flat-time –
The Least Event
The Future of Flat Time HO - The Least Event, Camberwell Arts Week (24 and 25 June - 11am - 6pm)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Latham, John 1921 births 2006 deaths British conceptual artists Alumni of Chelsea College of Arts South African artists English contemporary artists Zambian artists British expatriates in Zambia

Life and work

References

Sources

Further reading

External links