Robyn Denny

Word Row

1957

Not on display

Artist: Robyn Denny 1930–2014
Medium: Card and gouache on board
Dimensions: Support: 235 x 206 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by the artist 1973
Reference: T01833

Catalogue entry

Robyn Denny b.1930

T01833 Word Row 1957

Inscribed ‘Denny 57’b.r.
Card and gouache on board, 9 ¼ x 8¿(23.5 20.6).
Presented by the artist 1973.
Exh: Tate Gallery, March–April 1973 (not numbered).

T01833 is one of a group of small collages made by the artist in 1957–58 in which he was working out ways of organising unconnected and separate letters and numbers together to relate in shape and meaning. The stencils in T01833 had already been used for making letters in earlier paintings. The title is a palindrome and serves to indicate that the letters in the collage can be combined and read in any direction. The artist intended that the spectator should be able to order the letters together freely and not feel constrained to compose any literal meanings or sentences.

Published in The Tate Gallery Report 1972–1974, London 1975.