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John Latham
1921–2006
Full Stop
1961
Acrylic on canvas
Presented by Nicholas Logsdail and Lisson Gallery, 2005
T11968

Full Stop is a monumental painting comprising a large black spot on an unprimed canvas. The spot was created by repeated action with a spray gun, its curve delineated by using newspaper sheets cut to the correct shape. This semi-mechanical process is suggestive of printmaking rather than painting, and the work’s title refers to text and evokes the printed word. The image itself recalls such phenomena as solar eclipses or a black holes. John Latham’s use of the spray process was underpinned by a complex, personal philosophy of time called the Time-Base theory, which draws on science, philosophy and aesthetics.

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Click on images for more about each highlight

• Christopher Wood
  1901–30
  Zebra and Parachute
  1930
• Barbara Hepworth
  1903–75
  Spring
  1966
• Mary Martin
  1907–69
  Perspex Group on Orange (B)
  1969
• Antony Gormley
  born 1950
  Testing a World View
  1993
• Martin Boyce
  born 1967
  From ‘Our Love is Like the Flowers, the Rain, the Sea and the Hours’
  2002
• Chris Ofili
  born 1968
  The Upper Room
  1999–2002
• Gilbert & George
  born 1943 / born 1942
  Fates
  2005
• Richard Long
  born 1945
  Red Slate Circle
  1988
• John Latham
  1921–2006
  Full Stop
  1961