Modern Landscapes

Saatchi Gallery in collaboration with East London gallery Jealous are proud to present Modern Landscapes. The show is open 21 October – 21 November 2022 within one of the main gallery spaces at London’s iconic Saatchi Gallery. Public admission will be free.

This solo exhibition, by British artist and long time Radiohead collaborator Stanley Donwood shows of never-before-seen drawings and iconic Sacred Landscape paintings made produced for Glastonbury Festival.

Featured in the exhibition are colourful Sacred Landscapes based on hybrid cartographical and topological forms. They explore the ancient landscapes that surround mysterious sites such as Stonehenge, Wayland’s Smithy and the Cerne Abbas Giant, amongst many others. These are not mystical, New Age depictions as such but rather brash, bold colour field interpretations showing centuries-old field boundaries, trackways and paths.

In these works, the English countryside has been scooped up and dropped into California and drenched in psychedelic drugs and the bright pigments that are derived from petrochemicals.

In contrast the Modern land drawings are monochromatic, quieter, more reflective. They , and present a perfect yet sombre counterpoint to the Sacred Landscapes, showing the ancient being transformed by the modern.

The Modern land drawings are the aftermath.

These large drawings have been scrawled, torn and sometimes scratched into heavyweight paper with soot, charcoal, graphite and chalk to create a brutal contrast.

Unlike the Sacred Landscapes, which turn the ancient, mysterious landscapes of England into a loud, raucous celebration, the soot and charcoal melancholy of Modern land is what remains…