Lot 261: John Latham (1921-2006)

John Latham (1921-2006)
Book fragment
book, glass and silicon
6½ in. (16.6 cm.) long
Conceived circa 1990-2003.

Gifted directly by the artist to the present owner.

John Latham's most celebrated works are his book-reliefs which he made from 1958 onwards, both wall-based and free-standing.
Books - burnt, painted and cut up - became a primary motif. Books symbolise thought. The way they emerge from many of Latham's works suggests a human presence coming into being. But books also represent different systems of belief. Latham's father had been a devout Christian and Latham's childhood was saturated by religious education. As Latham grew older and was exposed to science he began to question the religion he had learnt to accept. In 1950 Latham met two scientists: Clive Gregory and Anita Kohsen. Gregory was an astronomer and Kohsen an animal ethologist.
His relationship that developed with Gregory and Kohsen was contingent with his own preoccupation with the idea of a unified universe.
The use of books in Latham's work refer to the philosophical and scientific systems that the artist was seeking to undermine. Books have a special significance in Latham's work as a source of knowledge as well as of error. Like human bodies, they exist concurrently as unified wholes and as the containers of a mass of information.
Latham's final body of work involved books combined with glass (see lots 261-262) - a substance prone to shatter. Latham's message is clear: the need for a unified world view is more urgent than ever.
Tate Britain held a retrospective of John Latham's work during 2005-2006.
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The present work forms a small fragment of a book attached to the surface of an uneven edged shard of glass. The book's title is difficult to identify. However, what appears striking is a cut-down sentence in the opening text page proclaiming'...it was defacing'. One would suggest this opening line forms the very ethos of what Latham sought to express in his work - the breakdown of conceived ideas which were taken as 'gospel' truths. It is also poignant that the book can be opened at different pages symbolising the work can exist in different states.