Lively for 60

Alan Davie's Ocean Monument No.2 from 1953 is exhibited alongside more contemporary work
Fisun Gner5 April 2012

The Gimpel Fils gallery may have had its heyday in the 1950s, showcasing groundbreaking young British sculptors such as Anthony Caro, as well as abstract expressionist Alan Davie, but that doesn't stop this gathering of artists old and new feeling and looking as fresh as anything that might tickle your fancy in the more prestigious galleries of East London.

This celebratory exhibition features dozens of artists with whom the gallery has had a long association, alongside those invited simply to offer an interesting conjunction.

So we have a contemporary, shiny, blue, fibreglass sculpture by Steven Gontarski, which is all fat loops, facing a spiky bronze work of two geometric figures by Lynn Chadwick.

Nearby, a rather baroque, pink, plasticine sculpture resembling a misshapen head by Audrey Reynolds is placed opposite the wonderfully eerie Animal Head by Henry Moore, a reminder that Moore's most effective sculptures were often small-scale.

Most, though not all, of the artists are British, and some go back to that lyrical period of English art that produced painters such as Ivon Hitchens, who honed his part abstract, part landscape art in the late 1930s.

Here, he shows a later canvas of 1962 called Rush End, which, with its vibrant greens and earthy browns, is as gorgeous as anything he's ever done.

Peter Davies offers a fun diversion, if you care to read his text painting slagging off the 2006 Venice Biennale. It's one long ramble: 'Anish Kapoor paints vaginas (what a c***)', reads one line. Mmm, quite.

Until Sep 2, Gimpel Fils, 30 Davies Street W1, Mon to Fri 10am to 5.30pm, free. Tel: 020 7493 2488. Tube: Bond Street

60th Anniversary Exhibition
Gimpel Fils
Davies Street, W1K 4NB

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