Marc Vaux
b. 1932, United Kingdom
Marc Vaux (born 29 November 1932, Swindon, UK) is a British artist who rose to prominence in the 1960s. The non-objective painter Marc Vaux explores a range of different materials and media, including drawing, painting, and sculptural reliefs. Mass-produced anodized aluminium, MDF boards, and commercial cellulose spray paints are among the materials he has used in recent work, which is variously described as Minimalist and Constructivist and centers on elemental, hard-edged geometry. Vaux’s primary concerns include the effects of colour as light and formal contrasts such as hard and soft shapes, gesture and structure, and closed and open spaces. His work was included in the seminal Situation exhibition of 1960 alongside Robyn Denny, William Turnbull and Bernard Cohen among others. This exhibition was a direct reaction by British abstract artists to the recent exhibitions in London of the American Abstract Expressionists in particular Tate's 1959 exhibition The New American Painting. Since then Vaux has continually developed his non-figurative painting style, exploring a range of different media from drawing and painting to three-dimensional reliefs and sculpture. Vaux's work has variously been described as minimalist and constructivist although since his primary interest is in colour and light he has more in common with the American west coast artists than the New York minimalists.