Cast Contemporaries, Edinburgh College of Art, 3rd August to 2nd September 2012
The artist's studio 6.7.12
"if the academic system codified some aspects of Neo-classical theory, it also revealed the interior conflicts and contradictions which became more clearly pronounced as one generation of students followed another...
What had begun as a quest for purity led to an investigation of ever more primitive forms of art - not only Greek vase paintings and Doric temples but the frescos of Giotto, the altarpieces of the early Flemish masters and medieval buildings - and eventually to the acceptance of the primitive and naive as aesthetic categories"
Honour, H. (1972) Neo-classicisminThe Age of Neo-classicism London: The Arts Council of Great Britain
Greek Painting 2012 acrylic on canvas 12" x 10"
photograph from a visit to Olympia by the artist 2001
Previous work by the artist reflecting some themes explored in Cast Contemporaries
Girl putting on Makeup 2010 acrylic on canvas 30” x 24”
Charles Bridge (with Pavel Brazda elements) 2009 acrylic on canvas 30'' x 24''
New work produced for the show: work in progress
Two Girls on Beach (detail) March 2012 acrylic on canvas 36" x 24"
The Grand Tour (Pompeii) (detail) April 2012 acrylic on canvas 36" x 60"
finished work
"Rome could represent a powerful model of European culture, of literary authority, of liberty and civic participation, of imperium sine fine (empire without end)- but also of decline and ruin."
Sachs, J. (2010) Romantic Antiquity Rome in the British Imagination 1789-1832 New York: Oxford University Press Inc.
The Grand Tour (Pompeii) 2012 acrylic on canvas 36” x 60”
Girl at her Toilet 2012 acrylic on canvas 36” x 24”
Two Girls on Beach 2012 acrylic on canvas 36” x 24”
The Stranglers 2012 acrylic on canvas 47" x 33.5"
Curators moved by the grandeur of casts 2012 acrylic on canvas 47" x 33.5"
Mother and Child United 2011 acrylic on canvas 47" x 33.5" (originally painted for Unfinished Business, Wallington, summer 2011