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               Redfern 1978                                             please click on the icons above and the 'live' text below to navigate the site

                                                                      

 

button2.gif  catalogue and review of exhibition by Malcolm Quantrill, Art International

button2.gif   prints

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Primitive reconstruction’

76.5” x 102” acrylic 1978

(Collection of J.Sainsbury) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The above piece is another work based on Piero Della Francesca’s ‘Flagellation’. In this case I have used the device often used by art historians of connecting up the important elements of the composition to try and grasp the structure of the composition. Piero is a prime candidate for this sort of thing because of his love of mathematical organisations. It is, perhaps, not surprising but it amazed me when I found that his organisation seemed to be made up of two sets of opposing parallel lines. This struck a chord with me and had a strong affinity with some of my earlier work. I utilised this device to create an anachronistic space whilst, at the same time, making a play with certain rustic elements that were creeping into certain conceptual sculptors work.  In this respect the exhibition continues with some of the themes of the last show and marks the beginning of a tentative attempt to engage with colour in some pieces as an element of the work, although not with any radical intention.

 

I had been selected by Alan Bowness and given a Linbury Trust Award to fund a sabbatical year from teaching and for travel to Mexico and Guatemala. I was particularly keen to see the Mayan and Aztec sites in Palenque, Tikal, Mitla and particularly the ball court at Chichen Itza. The architecture of the ball court and the observatory in Jaipur had long held a fascination for me. They were the stimulus for some of my watercolour propositions during the previous years. I was amused that Ian Hamilton Finlay had characterised some ‘Land Art’ of the period as Aztec works ‘without the bloodletting’ when his own concrete poetry work was quite polite itself.  Certainly much ‘land art’ paled into insignificance when compared to the Nazca lines for example. I struggled with the idea of wanting the grand gesture whilst, at the same time, a work that was intimate and the personal. Painting was the attempt to realise this. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Stepped landscape’

48” x 68” acrylic 1978

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Time wall’

48” x 68” acrylic 1978

(Collection of Helen and Philip Jessup)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Ruined architectural site’

48” x 68” acrylic 1978

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Sea at an angle’

42” x 63” acrylic 1978

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Alternative directions’

30” x 40” acrylic 1978

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Cloche’

40” x 90” acrylic 1978

(Collection of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Oriental landscape with screens’

40” x 90” acrylic 1978

(Collection of De Beers)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Cause and effect’

42” x 42” acrylic 1977

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Smoke and wind”

57” x 57” acrylic 1977

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Net at Co. Antrim’

30” x 40” acrylic 1978

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Interference’

30” x 40” acrylic 1978

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Monumental earthwork’

30” x 40” acrylic 1977