This work consists of 14 panels, featuring over 300 popular postcards depicting waves crashing onto the coastline, each captioned ‘Rough Sea’. They were collected by the artist from British seaside towns and a large map annotated with the locations featured in the postcards is included in the first panel. The grid formation, the serial presentation and the typed labelling clearly identify the work of an artist employing the language of Conceptualism. The title however makes the link to a number of works the artist has made on the subject of memory and memorials, in this case the forgotten artists who created the images. This acquisition of such an important piece from the artist's early career will allow the museum to represent an important artist more comprehensively, as well as enable a fuller representation of a key period in 20th-century art.

Provenance

The artist through the Timothy Taylor Gallery.