PaintingTwentyTen |
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What Swedish poet Tranströmer (b. 1931) says contains the sort of wisdom which applies to a lot of life, but which is especially applicable to the challenges and rewards of being a painter: particularly a second year painter, preparing to exhibit in the annual Second Year Show. The second year of the Painting Degree at the University of Brighton is traditionally a special year, where students are encouraged to develop the sort of qualities which might enable them to move beyond the already considerable achievements of their first year: to explore uncharted waters - to go beyond their familiar selves, in a quest to make their art ever fresher, deeper and more potent. And this is never an easy process, involving as it does exactly the sort of testing experience and courage of which Tranströmer speaks. This year's show should be really memorable. For here are a terrific group of students, lively minded and curious about their practice on all sorts of levels: from the practical to the poetic, from the painterly to the philosophical, and from the historical to the contemporary. The work engages - and reshapes - aspects of emblematic narrative, portraiture and the influence of photography; topographical and imaginary landscapes of the soul, enigmatic symbolism, freshly conceived figuration and various modalities of abstraction. If there is both flat and deep space, juicy colour and pithy drawing, measured cogitation and free-flowing intuition, there is also tender lyricism and mordant humour, resolved image and open form, often conjuring exactly that "clearing space" so important to Tranströmer. Enjoy! Dr. Michael Tucker |
© Copyright 2010 University of Brighton Fine Art Painting students.
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