Background
Marc Vaux was born on November 29, 1932 in Swindon, Wiltshire, England, United Kingdom.
In 1957 he entered the Slade School.
Marc Vaux was born on November 29, 1932 in Swindon, Wiltshire, England, United Kingdom.
He attended the Commonwealth Grammar School in Swindon and following two years of national service, entered the Swindon School of Art in 1955.
In 1957 he entered the Slade School where he studied alongside Ceri Richards and Keith Vaughn and then travelled to Europe on scholarship in the early 60s studying at Jean Pons’ lithographic printing studios.
His work was included in the seminal Situation exhibition of 1960 alongside Robyn Denny, William Turnbull 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 the Tate's 1959 exhibition The New American Painting. Although originally headed for a career in Chemistry, Vaux eventually studied at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1957 to 1960 where he was awarded a Boise traveling scholarship which allowed him to travel in Italy, and later to work at the Jean Ponsa lithographic printing studio in Paris.
His works often centre around the presentation of a simple square structure; Vaux then engages with the division of this structure and then its relationship to colour. The geometric look of his works belie a random and instinctive approach that aims to 'identify and experience the life enhancing qualities of order and beauty which emanate from relationships that allow the senses to ‘sing’'
In 1973 Vaux was appointed Principal Lecturer in Painting at the Central School of Art and design in London and in 1986 Head of Painting at Central St Martins. In the late 80s he resigned from teaching to concentrate on his own work and was nominated for the Jerwood Painting Prize in 2003.
Quotations: "It [colour] is known to have a direct effect upon the central nervous system/human sensibility, arguably the most effective modifiers of human response, over sound and touch. It is dynamic - dependent on degree of colour, light, surrounding colours. Given the facts it is surprising it has taken so long to come to the position of recognising the effective power of colour alone – the endless potential of colour alone to communicate, affect and modify response.. it can be a pure visual experience equivalent to any other (experience). The nearest equivalent would be the sound of music. I see no reason why colour can't equate with melody and be as memorable. After all, Albers wrote poems to equate with his paintings."