It was through his
Stations of the Cross that I first encountered the art of Chris
Gollon, powerfully accompanied with reflections by Sara Maitland –
which I considered briefly earlier in
this blog
And so it was
fascinating to explore the wider context of Gollon's art, and gain an
understanding of the ways in which the Stations express both
continuity with, and, yet also, stand apart from, his other work.
Gollon, as a
“contemporary” artist, is unusual in being a figurative painter –
in many ways in the context of the contemporary art sense I think
this is a subversive identity.
The power of his
work comes often comes from the distortion of the human figure, and
yet in the midst of the distortion humanity remains intensely
visible. Many of the images are far from comfortable to view, and yet
there is something about them that captivates, you often feel that
your gaze if transgressive and yet you can not bring yourself to look
away.
Pickeral's text
provides just enough of a framework to help you see the evolution of
Gollon's work, some hints about the context and content often allows
you to enter more fully into the work, but to be honest for the most
part the work speaks for itself well enough that these guiding words
are inessential.
No comments:
Post a Comment