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| Peter Kinley Four Sheep 1970 oil on canvas Tate, London |
"Animals in the landscape frequently appear in Kinley's work of the 1970s. During this decade Kinley was living in the countryside. He was a keen upholder of the rights of animals and explained that he – "frequently painted animals to reassert, among other things, their right to respect in a culture which accords them only marginal consideration."
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| Myles Murphy Figure with Yellow Foreground 1974 oil on canvas Tate, London |
"Murphy attended the Slade School of Art in London. Teaching at the Slade laid great emphasis on a deep engagement with observed reality. It also stressed the importance of measurement as a foundation for drawing from the model. At first glance this painting looks relatively simple, with its depiction of a nude seated between two windows with an artificial palm tree. However, this apparent simplicity conceals a complex approach to the representation of the human form and its location in space."
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| Francis Bacon Three Figures and Portrait 1975 oil and pastel on canvas Tate, London |
"The furious movement of the two principal figures is placed within a claustrophobic setting, watched over by the portrait. It is usually seen as an image of tragic suffering. One – and possibly both – of the twisting human figures have been identified as George Dyer, the artist's lover, who committed suicide in 1971."
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| Arnulf Rainer Untitled (Death Mask) 1978 oil pastel and photograph on paper Tate, London |
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| Arnulf Rainer Untitled (Death Mask) 1978 oil pastel and photograph on paper Tate, London |
"Translation of extracts from Arnulf Rainer's text Rein-Pein-Schein-Sein (Vienna, 1978) – The death mask is a record of the last stage of human expressiveness. . . . It is a cast of a self-portrayal at the moment of entry into facelessness. . . . After ten years of cramped self-portrayals I was touched above all by the mimic-physiognomic language of these faces. No grimaces, no psychophysical tension, no allowance for dialogue-seeking, no desire to impress or deceive, no exaggerated mannerism. . . . The works shown here are preparatory, preliminary. There are no big pictures, no central key work of museum format. . . . The faces of the dead qualify the lives that have passed. They are taboo. We endure them only blotted out, transfigured through our culture."
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| Peter Greenham Lady Bonham Carter 1978 oil on canvas Tate, London |
"Lady (Charlotte) Bonham Carter, née Wickham (1893-1989) was an indefatigable lover of the arts and a generous patron. In the First World War she served in the War Office. In the Second, having qualified as a pilot, she was a photographic interpreter with the RAF. She also served in local government. This portrait, commissioned by a group of her friends, came to the Tate by her wish. She is shown wearing a gown designed by Fortuny, which she bought from him in Venice in 1922. The sittings were in Greenham's studio at the Royal Academy, where she was a Keeper."
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| Peter Greenham Life Class 1979 oil on canvas Tate, London |
"In a letter postmarked 14 January 1983 Greenham wrote: It was from half-a-dozen drawings I did in the life-class at the Byam Shaw that I began to paint the picture. At that time I used raw umber for the underpainting. I set the canvas up in the class room with the intention of finishing it there; but I found there were too many accidents of grouping and colour to do much except bring something here and something there to completion. I think the girl in the blue smock sitting half way to the mantelpiece is all that remains of these sessions. So I took the picture back to my own room and went on working from drawings, some of individuals, some of groups. After showing it at the Summer Exhibition I put it aside for ten years or more. Then I made more drawings and more changes. Figures came and went. There was a palette on the mantelpiece which went, because it drew the design up to the point. I repainted the model. If the picture had not been taken out of my hands, I daresay I would still be painting it."
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| Sean Scully Paul 1984 oil on canvas Tate, London |
"The triptych form of this work was deliberately chosen. Scully was very aware of the religious associations of this format. It also presented him with the possibility of 'putting something in the middle'. Paul was painted about a year after the artist's son died, and was dedicated to his memory."
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| John Lessore Apollo and Daphne (after Bernini) ca. 1985 oil on canvas Tate, London |
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| John Lessore Diana and Actaeon at the Byam Shaw 1987 oil on canvas Tate, London |
"This was inspired by Titian's painting Diana and Actaeon in the National Gallery of Scotland. It was the product of a teaching residency by Lessore at the Byam Shaw School of Art in north London, when the artist was teaching composition. Lessore got three of his students to act as models and adopt the poses of the figures in Titian's painting. Lessore and his other students then amalgamated these poses into the composition of the paintings on which they were working."
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| Lisa Milroy Light Bulbs 1988 oil on canvas Tate, London |
"During the 1980s Milroy made a number of paintings of objects neatly positioned against a neutral background. The arrangement of the light bulbs in this work suggests a deliberate categorisation, bringing out numerous differences between apparently similar designs. Yet the purpose of this careful presentation remains a mystery."
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| Juan Muñoz Raincoat Drawing 1989 chalk and oil paint on canvas Tate, London |
"Raincoat Drawings is one of a series of approximately forty scenes of domestic interiors in chalk on a black background that Juan Muñoz produced from the late 1980s onwards. The collective name of the series derives from the utilitarian black fabric of the support, which resembles that used in the manufacture of raincoats. . . . Muñoz connected the inspiration for the Raincoat Drawings with unsettling but prosaic experiences from early childhood, when, returning home from school, he would sometimes find that his mother had switched furniture between rooms and his room was no longer his."
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| Richard Hamilton The Citizen 1981-83 oil on canvas Tate, London |
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| Richard Hamilton The Subject 1988-90 oil on canvas Tate, London |
"Hamilton has made three diptych paintings relating to the 'troubles' in Northern Ireland. The Citizen depicts a blanketman, a republican detainee at the Maze Prison. The Subject represents a parading loyalist Orangeman."
– quoted passages based on notes by curators at the Tate in London