Christopher Bucklow Explained

Christopher Bucklow (born 1957) is a British artist and art-historian.^[1] His work has been exhibited internationally and is held in numerous public collections including the Guggenheim Museum,^[2] Museum of Modern Art (MoMA),^[3] Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (SFMoMA),^[4] and The Metropolitan Museum of Art^[5] among others. He has received residencies at The British Museum, London, the Banff Center for the Arts, Alberta, and The Centre for Studies in British Romanticism, Grasmere.^[6] Bucklow is best known for his ongoing photographic series Guests (1993–present)^[7] and his improvisational paintings from the series To Reach Inside A Vault (2006–present).^[8] He is the author of numerous books and essays including The Sea of Time and Space (Wordsworth Trust, 2004),^[9] "This is Personal: Blake and Mental Fight" in Blake & Sons, Lifestyles and Mysticism in Contemporary Art (University College, Cork, 2005), What is in the Dwat: The Universe of Guston's Final Decade (Wordsworth Trust, 2007),^[10] and the co-author of Bacon and the Mind: Art, Neuroscience and Psychology (Thames & Hudson, 2019).^[11]

Life and work

Bucklow was born in Flixton, Greater Manchester, England. He graduated with a degree in art history in 1978. Between 1978 and 1995 he worked as a curator in the Prints & Drawings Department at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London^[12] where he researched Romanticism, photography, and developed an interest in the work of William Blake (British, 1757 – 1827).^[13] An account of Bucklow's career as a curator and the forces that propelled his transition to art praxis can be found in "Rhetoric and Motive in the Writing of Art History: A Shapeshifter's Perspective" in Remaking Art History (Routledge, New York City; 2007).^[14]

Bucklow's early work (1989–91) was conceptual and sculptural, often taking the form of plant species that he altered genetically or grafted together.^[15] In the 1990s he created two bodies of  photographic work, The Beauty of the World (1991) and Guest - also known as Tetrarchs, that were foundational for Britain's contemporary negative-less photography movement^[16] .

Guests was created using a 30 x 40-inch pinhole camera, built by Bucklow, with thousands of apertures to make unique cibachrome chromogenic prints.^[17] Tetrarchs were created using either a 40 x 60-inch camera, or one with a 40 x 100 inches plate size.^[18] Guest (1993–present) features silhouettes of persons that appear to the artist in dreams. Friends, family, and fellow artists like Matthew Barney and Adam Fuss^[19] are featured individually in the work as a collective of figures drawn by the multiple solar images directed through the 25,000 apertures in Bucklow's camera.^{[20] [21]}

His interest in personal mythology, Jungian dream psychology, metaphor and the use of personification was continued in his subsequent paintings.^[22] To Reach Inside A Vault is a series of large scale improvisational paintings in which a commedia dell'arte technique is used to generate the subjects or plot.^[23] These paintings were exhibited in Bucklow's 2017 retrospective Said Now, For All Time at the Southampton City Art Gallery, UK.^[24]

Public collections

Museum of Modern Art, New York^[25]

Metropolitan Museum of Art^[26]

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum^[27]

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston^[28]

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth^[29]

Dallas Museum of Art^[30]

Victoria & Albert Museum^[31]

The Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere

Honolulu Museum of Art

Herzliya Museum of Art^[32]

High Museum of Art^[33]

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston^[34]

Blanton Museum of Art,^[35]

Cleveland Museum of Art^[36]

Yale Center for British Art

Norton Museum, Palm Beach^[37]

Perez Art Museum Miami^[38]

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art^[39]

Los Angeles County Museum of Art^[40]

Publications

• Bucklow, Christopher. 'The Lens Within the Heart' in Martin Harrison (ed.) Bacon and the Mind: Art, Neuroscience and Psychology, The Estate of Francis Bacon & Thames & Hudson, London, 2019. . (A study of  psychological sources of Francis Bacon's imagery).
• Bucklow, Christopher. Nantucket Sleighride, Southampton City Art Gallery & Ball Press, 2017. . (A study of the iconography of dreams).
• Bucklow, Christopher. Life on Mars, Southampton City Art Gallery & Ball Press, 2017. (A study of the generative phases leading to the creation of artworks).
• Bucklow, Christopher. 'The Child Comes as Softly as Snow', essay in Adam Fuss, Catalogue, Fundacion Mapfre, Madrid, 2011, pp. 159–171. (An iconographical study of the myths underlying Fuss' work).
• Bucklow, Christopher. 'St John's Apocalypse: Revelation, Resurrection, Rhetoric', essay in Signs of the Apocalypse/Rapture, Front Forty Press, Chicago, 2008, n.p. (An essay on dreaming and  the personal motives of prophets).
• Bucklow, Christopher. What is in the Dwat, The Universe of Philip Guston's Final Decade, Wordsworth Trust. 1 June 2007. (An iconographical study of Guston's late work).
• Bucklow, Christopher. 'Rhetoric and Motive in Writing Art History:  a Shape Shifter's Perspective', in Elizabeth C. Mansfield (ed.), Making Art History, Routledge, New York,  2007. (An essay on the personal motives of  art historians).
• Bucklow, Christopher. 'This is Personal: Blake and Mental Fight', in Blake & Sons, Lifestyles and Mysticism in Contemporary Art, University College, Cork, 2005 pp. 131 – 139. (An essay on the many versions of 'Blake' that scholars have created).
• Mellor and Hambourg, David Alan and Maria Morris. Christopher Bucklow: Guest, Blindspot Publications, New York, October 2004. Essays by David Alan Mellor and Maria Morris Hambourg. 50 colour plates.
• Bucklow, Christopher. 'William Blake: The Sea of Time and Space', If This Be Not I, The British Museum and the Wordsworth Trust, 2004, pp. 115–120. (An essay on William Blake and the invention of religion).
• If This Be Not I, British Museum and The Wordsworth Trust, 2004 (book). Essays by Marina Warner, Adam Phillips, Roger Malbert, Introduction by James Putnam.
• Bucklow, Christopher. Seven Beginnings to Guest, Artereal Gallery, Sydney, Australia, 2006 (Catalogue contains seven accounts of the possible genesis of the series).

Monographs

• 2017 Alex Faulkner et al. Said Now, For All Time, Southampton City Art Gallery. Preface by Martin Harrison.
• 2015 Alex Faulkner and Christopher Bucklow, Dimitri & Wenlop, Upton Noble, Ball Press, .
• 2004 Prof David Alan Mellor et al. Christopher Bucklow: Guest, Blindspot Publications, New York.
• 2004 Marina Warner et al. If This Be Not I, British Museum, London & Wordsworth Trust,  Grasmere, With an interview by Adam Philips.

External links

• chrisbucklow.com
• ArtCyclopedia

Notes and References

1. Web site: ULAN Full Record Display (Getty Research). getty.edu. 9 September 2019.
2. Web site: ICP Photographers Lecture Series: Christopher Bucklow. 23 February 2016. International Center of Photography. 9 September 2019.
3. Web site: ICP Photographers Lecture Series: Christopher Bucklow. 23 February 2016. International Center of Photography. 9 September 2019.
4. Web site: Christopher Bucklow, Solar Clusters Series, 1995 · SFMOMA. sfmoma.org. 9 September 2019.
5. Web site: Search Christopher Bucklow. metmuseum.org. 9 September 2019.
6. Web site: ICP Photographers Lecture Series: Christopher Bucklow. 23 February 2016. International Center of Photography. 9 September 2019.
7. Web site: Guest, 1995 – Christopher Bucklow . metmuseum.org. 9 September 2019.
8. News: Rachel Whiteread's ghostly triumphs and resplendent Reni – the week in art. Jones. Jonathan. 8 September 2017. The Guardian. 9 September 2019. 0261-3077.
9. Web site: Christopher Bucklow – AbeBooks. abebooks.com. 9 September 2019.
10. Web site: What is in the Dwat : Christopher Bucklow : 9781905256211. bookdepository.com. 9 September 2019.
11. Web site: Bacon and the Mind: Art, Neuroscience and Psychology. guardianbookshop.com. 9 September 2019.
12. Web site: Christopher Bucklow Biography – Christopher Bucklow on artnet. artnet.com. 9 September 2019.
13. Web site: Akron Art Museum. 9 September 2019. akronartmuseum.org.
14. Book: Bucklow, Christopher. Remaking Art History, Rhetoric and Motive in the writing of art History: A Shapeshifter's perspective. Routledge. 2007. New York. 131–140.
15. Book: Roberts, Russell. In Visible Light. Museum of Modern Art, Oxford. 1997. 131–137.
16. Web site: Review: Bucklow and Wright use simplicity to reveal distinct truths. 6 May 2016. ARTS ATL. 9 September 2019.
17. Web site: Christopher Bucklow. Fraenkel Gallery. 9 September 2019.
18. Web site: Review: Bucklow and Wright use simplicity to reveal distinct truths. 6 May 2016. ARTS ATL. 9 September 2019.
19. Web site: Christopher Bucklow. Fraenkel Gallery. 9 September 2019.
20. Web site: Review: Bucklow and Wright use simplicity to reveal distinct truths. 6 May 2016. ARTS ATL. 9 September 2019.
21. Web site: NOW SHOWING #216: The week's top exhibitions – a-n The Artists Information Company. 9 September 2019.
22. Book: Warner, Marina. If This Be Not I, Psychic Time: or, The Metamorphosis of Narcissus. The British Museum and The Wordsworth Trust Press. 2004. 6.
23. Web site: Christopher Bucklow: Said Now, For All Time. Southampton City Art Gallery. 9 September 2019.
24. Web site: Southampton City Art Gallery Art Exhibitions Southampton, Hampshire. Southampton City Art Gallery. 9 September 2019.
25. Web site: ULAN Full Record Display (Getty Research). getty.edu. 9 September 2019.
26. Web site: ICP Photographers Lecture Series: Christopher Bucklow. 23 February 2016. International Center of Photography. 9 September 2019.
27. Web site: NOW SHOWING #216: The week's top exhibitions – a-n The Artists Information Company. 9 September 2019.
28. Web site: Search the Collection The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. www.mfah.org. 9 September 2019.
29. Web site: Against the wall. Helber. Christina Rees, Annabelle Massey. 16 September 1999. Dallas Observer. 9 September 2019.
30. Web site: Guest – DMA Collection Online. dma.org. 9 September 2019.
31. Web site: Your Search Results Search the Collections Victoria and Albert Museum. Victoria and Albert Museum. 9 September 2019.
32. Web site: Silver Eye Center for Photography Presents Spectra: New Abstract Photography. 22 September 2010. Museum Publicity. 9 September 2019.
33. Web site: Christopher Bucklow. Jackson Fine Art. 9 September 2019.
34. Web site: Guest: 4:16 pm, 4th November 1995. collections.mfa.org. 9 September 2019.
35. Web site: Blanton Museum of Art Online Collections Database. collection.blantonmuseum.org. 9 September 2019. 28 February 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210228013724/https://collection.blantonmuseum.org/4DACTION/HANDLECGI/CTN3?display=POR. dead.
36. Web site: Search the Collection. Cleveland Museum of Art. 9 September 2019.
37. Web site: Norton Museum of Art Out of the Box: Camera-less Photography. OctoberCMS. www.norton.org. 9 September 2019.
38. Web site: InsideOut. www.pamm.org. 9 September 2019.
39. Web site: Christopher Bucklow, Solar Clusters Series, 1995 · SFMOMA. sfmoma.org. 9 September 2019.
40. Web site: Sol Invictus, 1000 Solar Images LACMA Collections. collections.lacma.org. 9 September 2019.