Lots 159 160 166

An abstract painting sits on a white gallery wall, with a wooden floor in the foreground.
Barrie Cook, Pointillist, c.1965
An abstract painting sits on a white gallery wall, with a wooden floor in the foreground.
Barrie Cook, Ziggy Zag, 1972
An abstract painting sits on a white gallery wall, with a wooden floor in the foreground.
Barrie Cook, Continuum, 1974
Lots 159, 160 & 166, Installation View
Maroon and navy bands in a prism -like pattern

Barrie Cook, Pointillist, (detail) c.1965

vertical stripes in black and white with a textured surface underneath.
Barrie Cook, Ziggy Zag, (detail) 1972
An abstract, zig zag pattern with black, white and yellow bands.
Barrie Cook, Ziggy Zag, (detail) 1972
Vertical bands in black, white and purple.
Barrie Cook, Continuum, (detail) 1974
Vertical bands in black, white and purple.
Barrie Cook, Continuum, (detail) 1974

Lots 159, 160 & 166
Barrie Cook
18th April–24th May 2026

Ivory Tars is pleased to present an exhibition of three paintings by Barrie Cook (b.1929, Birmingham, d.2020, The Lizard), purchased as unstretched lots from an auction in Penzance on the 1st August 2024. 

Due to their size, it is commonplace for large-scale abstract paintings to be removed from their stretchers and rolled for the purposes of transportation and storage. During the time they spend un-stretched however, the value of these canvases alters. No longer viewable in the manner that they were intended to be, they await a moment at which those optimal conditions are once more bestowed upon them. This diminished visual intelligibility is in turn reflected in the economic worth afforded to these unsupported objects.    

‘Support’ in this instance can refer to a physical frame that acts to holds a painted surface in tension, but also to a broader system –at once logistical, financial, critical and ideological– that accommodates such tensioned surfaces.