An exhibition of work by the late Ian Breakwell (1934 – 2005) is now showing at the Quad gallery in Derby. The Elusive State of Happiness is a major exhibition of the work of Ian Breakwell, an artist whose final works were created under a Creative Fellowship award from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

Breakwell, who was born and raised in Derby, was a man with an eye for seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary. He was a world renowned prolific artist who took a multi-media approach to his observation of the minutiae of life through a wide range of media including diaries, film works, TV, audio and drawing.

Ian’s most famous and best-loved work is his Continuous Diary in which, through an array of mediums, he sought to chronicle what he called, ‘the side events of everyday life’. The Diary is the central motif of the new exhibition, and links Ian’s books and films with his video, drawing and audio works – all of them speaking as reference for his Continuous Diary lifelong project. 

Ian’s AHRC Fellowship was awarded specifically so he could realise his lifetime’s work and complete the Continuous Diary. Tragically, Ian was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer just months after receiving the Fellowship. He died the following year leaving his wife, Felicity Sparrow, and his colleagues from the research team at Central St Martins to see the Diary project through to completion.

The humour, mischief and oblique wonder at the world that permeates Breakwell’s verbal and visual legacy is already legendary. His voyeurism –social rather than sexual– is always mitigated by humour: ‘The humour that I love is the morose, the deadpan, the seemingly unfunny stuff that is close to misery, but not quite.’ By presenting a continuous re-interpretation of what we already know, and have mostly overlooked, Breakwell invites the viewer not to discard, but to reinvent the meaning of things. He invites us to see with other eyes.

Ian Breakwell: The Elusive State of Happiness is at Derby’s QUAD Gallery, from 13 February –18 April 2010.

 
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AHRC Media Contact Emi Spinner: e.spinner@ahrc.ac.uk Tel: 0117 9876 770

Notes to editors:

Arts & Humanities Research Council: Each year the AHRC provides approximately £102 million from the Government to support research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities, from languages and law, archaeology and English literature to design and creative and performing arts. In any one year, the AHRC makes approximately 700 research awards and around 1,350 postgraduate awards. Awards are made after a rigorous peer review process, to ensure that only applications of the highest quality are funded. The quality and range of research supported by this investment of public funds not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK.