ICA exhibitions 1948-1961: from a Picasso picture to a headscarf: paintings into textiles

In my paper I would like to explore some key exhibitions, a fuller account of these 100 shows is included in my recent book ICA 1946 to 1968, published by the ICA with generous support from the book Paul Mellon Centre. My work is always underpinned by Reyner Banham’s maxim it’s not either/or but both/and, that is I use an all embracing approach to subject matter which includes not only fine art, but also design and popular culture. The two themes which I have drawn out to explore with you are the temporal turn and vibrant matter. Thinking of the work of Christine Ross in the past is the present: it’s the future to: the temporal turn in contemporary art, (Bloomsbury 2012). Art is no longer representative of the endless moment, it now deals with different experiences of time-entropy, ephemerality, repetition, real time, randomness the time of the other and women’s time. And the postwar period has become bracketed with the contemporary, many books on contemporary art history begin with the independent group and the ICA.