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experiences of figures or things. Amongst
David Smyth's own oeuvre, for example, this
would include works like "Murray Stree"
(1994) or "Hip Hop" (1996). Nevertheless, it
is not an abstract type of logic which is at
work in David Smyth's paintings but always
vivid perceptions of colour which impose
themselves on numerous, equally concrete,
visual experiences, just as they impose
themselves on us. References to urban life
alluded to in many of these paintings
reinforce the idea that the painter's spirit is
fundamentally drawn to everything which is
true life in our society. THE PASSION OF COLOR David Smyth's paintings radiate with colou which make us look at them from every direction. It's true to say that colour has played an important role in twentieth century art in general and perhaps it will continue to do so for a long time. Painting in the classical period was dominated by rules of perspective, so much so that the course of these lines was the prime element imposed on painters. In contrast, the twentieth century seems to be dominated by a different element, that of colour. And hasn't this been the case since Van Gogh, or, indeed, since Delacroix? The question is: why? The reply is complex but as Van Gogh put it: "I have attempted to express the terrible passions of man with that red and that green" (Lettres 5 Theo, p. 231), This reply surely suits David Smyth as he doesn't submit to the geometric precision of perspective either. He also manipulates vivid colours to shatter our emotions. While one of his paintings may be predominantly red and another predominantly blue, there isn't a |
single one where a multitude of colours doesn't
come into play. Here, too, red and green confront
each other, but it could just as easily be ochre and
blue. On the other hand, the way in which colour
is treated in David Smyth's works takes on its own
particular direction: the blocks of colour or the
coloured patches always have vague edges. None
of those boldly outlined areas of colour here, as in
Gauguin or Fauvism. Here the edges are more
ragged: colours lie side by side, merging into one
another like water and sand on a beach, shading
into one another as he moves from one colour to
the next. As David Sinyth conceives it, the
coloured areas form expanses streaked with bright
colours where every hue plays with every other
one in a very sensual game which actually shatters
the affectivity of the "observer". Moving
imperceptibly from one to the next, we proceed
from one emotion to the next: our visual sensuality
is stopped dead by a multitude of perceptions so
as to make our entire body start resonating. CHESSBOARD OF THE VISIBLE Nevertheless, David Smyth's works never lapse into a confusion of perceptions. Some of his paintings consist of orthogonal grids of variable regularity. Some of them are strict, so much so that they resemble windows. Others are more indeterminate, creating deformed or irregularly spaced grids.Yet others form barriers of sorts. These regular forms appear time and again. And as this image is like a closed window in David Smyth's work, faced with all those grids, it is hard to keep ourselves from conjuring up other metamorphoses | ||
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