John Carter: On Paper

John Carter RA has made some of the most beautiful and lucid artworks of the last fifty years. The apparent simplicity and directness of his abstract reliefs belie an ambiguity that extends even to their definition, as Carter seeks subtly to reimagine the relationship between sculpture and painting.

Carter is best known for his ‘wall objects’, shallow sculptures based on abstract mathematical formulae. He begins each work with notebook sketches, moving on to larger, measured drawings. It is these drawings – taken from throughout Carter’s career – that this book presents. Each drawing is a fascinating model of colour abstraction, with commentary by the artist.

Carter’s drawings reveal the originality of his mind and the love of exactitude and clarity that drives his practice. His singular contribution to the post-war flowering of British abstraction can clearly be seen here.