The Likeness of Things: Baum, Cockrill, Henri, Walsh

In 1970, the Neptune Theatre Gallery in Liverpool held an exhibition titled Realist Painting.  In 1974, the Sunderland Art Centre presented Five Realist Painters.  Two years later, Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery showed Real Life. These exhibitions all included works by the four artists gathered here: John Baum, Maurice Cockrill, Adrian Henri and Sam Walsh.

All four started teaching at Liverpool College of Art in the 1960s, though they had come to the city from different places. They were friends, and part of the same art scene.

Although they had developed different approaches and styles in the 1960s, through the 1970s Baum, Cockrill, Henri and Walsh were often exhibited together under the banner of “realism” in the UK and abroad. During that decade, they concentrated on what John Baum called “the likeness of things”, depicting people, objects and places in a clear crisp manner sometimes described as Photo-realist, in reference to the movement then evolving in the US. This exhibition revisits that work of the 1970s when, with apparent emotional detachment, Baum, Cockrill, Henri and Walsh reappropriated traditional genres like portrait, landscape or still-life painting, and gave them a resolutely contemporary twist.

This exciting new exhibition, curated by Dr Catherine Marcangeli, will feature large-scale works which have not been displayed publicly for some time, as well as works from private collections; one not to be missed. An exhibition catalogue will be available.

The Likeness of Things: Baum, Cockrill, Henri, Walsh. Kirkby Gallery, Tuesday 10 May – Saturday 16 July. Admission is free.