The Badminton Game

Last updated

The Badminton Game
DAVID INSHAW The Badminton Game 1972 1973.jpg
Artist David Inshaw
Year1972–1973
Dimensions152.4 cm× 183.5 cm(60.0 in× 72.2 in)
Location Tate, London

The Badminton Game is a painting of 1973 by the English painter David Inshaw. It was inspired by the gardens of Devizes and the landscape of Wiltshire. Inshaw has described how the place gave him a feeling of "mystery and wonder". He wrote about the painting: "my main aim was to produce a picture that held a moment in time, but unlike a photograph, which only records an event. I thought a painting could give a more universal, deeper meaning to that moment by composing one instant from lots of different unrelated moments." [1] Its original title was a line from Thomas Hardy's poem "She, to Him": Remembering mine the loss is, not the blame. [2]

The painting was exhibited at the ICA Summer Studio exhibition in London. It has been in the collection of the Tate since 1980. According to The Guardian , it is "one of the most enduringly popular images in the museum's collection". [3] As of 2017, it was not on display. [1]

In 2011 The Badminton Game was the subject of an episode in the BBC series Hidden Paintings of the West. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Everett Millais</span> British painter and illustrator (1829–1896)

Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest student to enter the Royal Academy Schools. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded at his family home in London, at 83 Gower Street. Millais became the most famous exponent of the style, his painting Christ in the House of His Parents (1849–50) generating considerable controversy, and he produced a picture that could serve as the embodiment of the historical and naturalist focus of the group, Ophelia, in 1851–52.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Constable</span> English painter (1776–1837)

John Constable was an English landscape painter in the Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedham Vale, the area surrounding his home – now known as "Constable Country" – which he invested with an intensity of affection. "I should paint my own places best", he wrote to his friend John Fisher in 1821, "painting is but another word for feeling".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenneth Clark</span> English art historian, museum director, and broadcaster (1903–1983)

Kenneth Mackenzie Clark, Baron Clark was an English art historian, museum director, and broadcaster. After running two important art galleries in the 1930s and 1940s, he came to wider public notice on television, presenting a succession of programmes on the arts during the 1950s and 1960s, culminating in the Civilisation series in 1969.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bridget Riley</span> British painter (born 1931)

Bridget Louise Riley is an English painter known for her op art paintings. She lives and works in London, Cornwall and the Vaucluse in France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Ofili</span> British painter

Christopher Ofili, is a British painter who is best known for his paintings incorporating elephant dung. He was Turner Prize-winner and one of the Young British Artists. Since 2005, Ofili has been living and working in Trinidad and Tobago, where he currently resides in the city of Port of Spain. He also has lived and worked in London and Brooklyn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">L. S. Lowry</span> British visual artist (1887–1976)

Laurence Stephen Lowry was an English artist. His drawings and paintings mainly depict Pendlebury, Greater Manchester as well as Salford and its vicinity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Blake (artist)</span> English artist (born 1932)

Sir Peter Thomas Blake is an English pop artist. He co-created the sleeve design for the Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. His other works include the covers for two of The Who's albums, the cover of the Band Aid single "Do They Know It's Christmas?", and the Live Aid concert poster. Blake also designed the 2012 Brit Award statuette.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Hockney</span> British artist (born 1937)

David Hockney is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English art</span> Overview of the art of England

English art is the body of visual arts made in England. England has Europe's earliest and northernmost ice-age cave art. Prehistoric art in England largely corresponds with art made elsewhere in contemporary Britain, but early medieval Anglo-Saxon art saw the development of a distinctly English style, and English art continued thereafter to have a distinct character. English art made after the formation in 1707 of the Kingdom of Great Britain may be regarded in most respects simultaneously as art of the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Whitworth</span> Art gallery in Manchester, England

The Whitworth is an art gallery in Manchester, England, containing over 60,000 items in its collection. The gallery is located in Whitworth Park and is part of the University of Manchester.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicholas Serota</span> English art historian

The Hon. Sir Nicholas Andrew Serota,, is a British art historian and curator.

<i>Face Dances</i> 1981 studio album by the Who

Face Dances is the ninth studio album by English rock band the Who. It was released in 1981 by Warner Bros. in the United States and on Polydor in the United Kingdom. It is one of two Who studio albums with drummer Kenney Jones, who joined the band after Keith Moon's death three years earlier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Nash (artist)</span> English Surrealist painter (1889–1946)

Paul Nash was a British surrealist painter and war artist, as well as a photographer, writer and designer of applied art. Nash was among the most important landscape artists of the first half of the twentieth century. He played a key role in the development of Modernism in English art.

<i>Ophelia</i> (painting) John Everett Millais painting, 1851–1852

Ophelia is an 1851–52 painting by British artist Sir John Everett Millais in the collection of Tate Britain, London. It depicts Ophelia, a character from William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, singing before she drowns in a river.

Peter Kennard is a London-born and based photomontage artist and Professor of Political Art at the Royal College of Art. Seeking to reflect his involvement in the anti-Vietnam War movement, he turned from painting to photomontage to better address his political views. He is best known for the images he created for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in the 1970s–80s including a détournement of John Constable's The Hay Wain called "Haywain with Cruise Missiles".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Inshaw</span>

David Inshaw is a British artist who sprang to public attention in 1973 when his painting The Badminton Game was exhibited at the ICA Summer Studio exhibition in London. The painting was subsequently acquired by the Tate Gallery and is one of several paintings from the 1970s that won him critical acclaim and a wide audience. Others include The Raven, Our days were a joy and our paths through flowers, She did not turn, The Cricket Game, Presentiment and The River Bank (Ophelia).

<i>Nat Tate: An American Artist 1928–1960</i> 1998 book by William Boyd

Nat Tate: An American Artist 1928–1960 is a 1998 novel, presented as a biography, by the Scottish writer William Boyd. Nat Tate was an imaginary person, invented by Boyd and created as "an abstract expressionist who destroyed '99%' of his work and leapt to his death from the Staten Island ferry. His body was never found." At the time of the novel's launch, Boyd went some way to encourage the belief that Tate had really existed.

Graham Stuart Ovenden was an English painter, fine art photographer and writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Hepher</span> British artist (born 1935)

David Hepher is a British artist, best known for his paintings of buildings, landscapes, especially tower blocks, including the Aylesbury Estate:

The Aylesbury Estate is... the remarkable leitmotif of [his] work as a painter… the Aylesbury is to Hepher what the Stour valley was to Constable or the Medway to Turner.

Maria Jane Balshaw CBE is director of the Tate art museums and galleries. The appointment was confirmed by Theresa May, the UK Prime Minister at the time, on 16 January 2017, making Balshaw the first female director of the Tate.

References

  1. 1 2 "The Badminton Game, David Inshaw, 1972–3". Tate . Retrieved 7 June 2017.
  2. "The Badminton Game, David Inshaw". Badminton England . Retrieved 7 June 2017.
  3. Lambirth, Andrew (2 October 2015). "Another England: how David Inshaw changed the landscape of art". The Guardian . Retrieved 7 June 2017.
  4. "Your Paintings: The Badminton Game". BBC. 23 June 2011. Retrieved 7 June 2017.