“The holes are cut - they're
not damage.”
Merlin James
In a discussion with John Hyde the British artist Merlin James stated “They [Merlin’s Paintings] do often go through long
process in the studio. Often I can't specify a starting date for a work and
more, because it's gone through so many changes. But then occasional ones are
quite quick also - some are just thin paint, with drawn elements, that have
worked immediately and needed no revision. And often even when they appear old
and distressed, it's not necessarily that they've been around a long time -
it's just a look they have.”
Coming of age along with YBA’s
like Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin, James rejected the conceptional ethos and
refused to accept that painting was dead. A respected writer about art in
general and painting in particular who has been published in Art in America and
the Times Literary Supplement, James knowledge of his subjects history is
undisputed and as such affects his painting in equal measure.
Known for his inclusion of
collage elements that range from tufts of hair to little model houses and at
times included the stretcher bars as a pictorial element, the negative collage
holes are a formal device for his expression not unlike the negative space in a
Henry Moore sculpture. Coming to the viewer “already damaged” relates the
painting to its historical traditions whilst the abstracted subject matter with
its nods to minimalism and color field painting roots it firmly in the present.
Described as a post-avant-garde painter, James’ subject matter is
as diverse as it is unpredictable ranging from landscapes to interior still
life’s, via figures, buildings, doorways and sexually explicit scenes; he effectively
avoids the dictates of both the institutional and commercial market places.
As the Brooklyn
Rail’s John Yau observed “He [James] has more in common with Groucho Marx, who
didn’t want to belong to any club that would have him, than to Karl Marx, whose
followers fuss mightily over the credentials one needs to gain admittance to
the inner circle.”
Hi exhibition, Merlin James: Genre Paintings is
currently on show at New York’s Sikkema
Jenkins & Co. until the 7th of March.
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