John ('Jack') Knox

How It Is

About this artwork

This painting was included in the artist’s solo show at the Serpentine Gallery in London in 1971. The exhibition featured a number of large white canvases covered with strange hieroglyphic symbols. The paintings were inspired by Paolo Ucello’s ‘Rout of San Romano’, which had surprised Knox with its active composition when seen at close quarters. Knox’s painting features a variety of images and signs, using repeated colours and shapes in order to replicate the sense of movement he had so admired in Ucello’s painting. This encourages the viewer’s eye to move across the canvas, spotting differences and similarities. Some of the mysterious shapes are silhouettes of objects that Knox picked up on the beach near his home in Carnoustie.

Updated before 2020

  • artist:
  • title:
    How It Is
  • date created:
    1968
  • materials:
    P.V.A., oil, pastel and black chalk on canvas
  • measurements:
    152.00 x 152.00 cm; Framed: 153.00 x 153.00 x 2.50 cm
  • object type:
  • credit line:
    Purchased 1987
  • accession number:
    GMA 3010
  • gallery:
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John ('Jack') Knox

John ('Jack') Knox