Pop Funk Series  1967-69

Home

Past Work

 Read about the series

Scroll down to view images

Western Collision #1 
acrylic on canvas, 4' x 5', 1967 
Collection of Intermedia Press, Vancouver


Transcending Space
acrylic on canvas,  4' x 4.5 1967


Ziggurat
acrylic on canvas 5' x 6', 1967 
Private Collection, Surrey, BC

 
Landlocked 
acrylc on canvas, 4' x 4.5', 1967
(Collection of Coast Art Trust, North Vancouver)

 
  
Sea Tantra 
acrylic on canvas, 4.5' x5.5' 1967

Chocolate Cream Nostalgia
acrylic on canvas  4.5' x 6'  1968
Private Collection, Ontario

Vista Vision
acrylic on camvas  4' sq. 1967



Birthday Rain
acrylic on camvas  4' 6" ea. side  1968
Private Collection, Ontario


Mandala Landscape 
acrylic on canvas, 3' x 3.5', 1967


Block House, Rising Sun
acrylic on canvas 4' x 3.5'  1966

Cold Fr
ont
acrylic on canvas  4' x 5'  1967



Rainbow and Sphere
  mixed media   4' x 4' 1968


Ziggurat
acrylic on canvas, 3' x 4', 1967



Plateau in Deep Space
enamel on canvas, 4' sq. 1966


Starscape 1
acrylic on panel,  3' x 4', 1966

Starscape 2
acrylic on panel,  3' x 4', 1966


The Way Back
acrylic on canvas  1968 4'6" ea. side





Untitled
   acrylic on plexiglass  3.5' x 7'  1968


Rainbow Filter-Kings
acrylic on canvas  4'6" ea. side  1968
Private Collection, Ontario

      
Western Collision #2
acrylic on canvas 3' x 4'  1967





Hidden Colour
acrylic on canvas  5.5' ea. side  1969
(Stolen)
Rainbowling Alley
acrylic on canvas  4'6" ea. side  1968
 

The paintings, drawings, and collages which Simpson made between 1967 and 1969 were a period of apprenticeship with Vancouver
artist, Gary Lee Nova, who was just back from studying  in the UK when Simpson met him and began collaborating together on
 multi media projects with the Al Neil Trio at the Sound Gallery. Lee Nova had made a unique synthesis of west coast funk and Tantric
geometry.
From 1967-68, Simpson worked alongside Lee Nova in the next studio  in an old bulding on Powell St., later known as the New Era
Social Club. 
There, Simpson experimented with shapes like elongated 
diamonds, or pyramids, with rainbows and Op Art  polka dots, a kind
of post-Pop lanndscape painting.


 Before meeting Lee Nova, Simpson had worked on a series of hard edge geometric paintings influenced by the European artists of the early
' 60s such as Victor Vasarely, Richard Moretensen and Arturo Bonfanti.  See
Neo-Cubism, (below):


Neo-Cubism, oil on canvas, 1965

In the Earth and Sky Changes  Series, Simpson shows his other main influence of the period, artist Jack Wise. The spiritual influence of the
 cultures of Asia, through Zen Buddhsim and Tibetan Tantric art found an echo in the work of many west coast artists in the 1960's. These
 interests were, in Simpson’s case, combined with that of the European Surrealists, especially Magritte, to form a personal contribution to the
 west coast funk style.


This was also the period of the Mandan Ghetto Gallery in Kitsilano, started by bill bissett, Joy Long and Simpson in 1968.  This collective gallery  had exhibitions of collage, painting and concrete poetry during its short existence.


Top of Page


Pop/Psychedelic Series

Past Work

Retrospective

Home

All Images © Gregg Simpson
Please request permission if  you wish to use an image you find on this site. 

Last updated: June 23, 2008