Breaking the surface

As a teenager I went to see a Minimalist art exhibition in Barcelona that ( I realised years later) was really influential. First, there were shaped canvases. A massive revelation for me that subconsciously spurred a few good paintings. I had to laugh, again years later, when I noticed that shaped canvases in the form of altarpieces had been at the core of Western art since the dark ages (I love that expression, though I think it’s a misnomer). The other discovery about the Minimalist show was the power of plain flat colour – and a love for Barnett Newman.

[singlepic id=182 w=320 h=240 float=left]What really happened, of course, is that the picture surface took centre stage, and you never quite look at it the same again. In reading art, first you learn to separate the formal qualities (the handling of paint, the textures and shapes) from the content (what the image is about), and then you get to see that the surface and the space around it also have a love-hate relationship. In London right now two painters have beautiful work that marries divorce. Luke Rudolf, in Kate MacGarry Gallery, chops up metallic triangles (very 80s) over luminous, blurred portraits – a bit Glenn Brown but looser. The paint, close up, is delicious! Candy acrylic that cheers you up. The spiky triangles do make the already alien-like portraits more sinister, but it’s so bright it doesn’t darken the joyous impressions. Go see them in the flesh, though, computer screens doesn’t give you the gleaming light and surface texture and the paintings just don’t look quite so appealing. And apparently the colour spectrum is ‘psychotropic,’ so it could be worth the journey – you’ll enjoy the trip back home after!

[singlepic id=181 w=320 h=240 float=left]In Rivington Place, Chinese artist Jia Aili is using spiky triangles – literally. Broken mirror shards are scattered on the floor. Whereas Luke, according to the press release, ‘exploits the earnest daubs of the expressionist [sic] as well as the graphic immediacy of design,’ in referencing Modernism, Aili is inspired by Caravaggio’s The Incredulity of Saint Thomas whilst reflecting, according to Julio Etchart, on industrial progress, social corrosion and the individual’s struggle in the machine age (which surely was the main remit of 17th C Italy?).

Blurb aside, the works are both really interesting from the picture plane point of view. The fascinating part of the installation in Iniva is the extension of the picture plane with physical objects and paint.

#Colour #London #Painting