Buckinghamshire New University

Four days in New York.

I love it. When something I am thinking about, usually following something I have read but can’t really pin down in my own terms, happens in front of me. Twice.

A few weeks ago when I was wading around in some art theory, I experienced this feeling of understanding the words that I was reading and re-reading; but not in my mind. Somewhere in my head but not in the place of logical thought. If I closed my eyes I could imagine the idea and hold it. When I opened my eyes I couldn’t. It was about a space between things and places that don’t actually exist; but that I know are there. The presence of colour and time that cannot be touched.

Listening to Stuart Cumberbatch discussing the paintings of Jonathan Lasker at a talk at Timothy Taylor in November, I had the impression that he seemed to be speaking from that kind of place too. He spoke about an anxiety he experienced as he spent time with the paintings. Cumberbatch went on to describe how he had this sense of the paintings as, ‘…something like a heist movie‘ a combination of the intense planning and execution required in pulling it off and the artist being, ‘…like the guy who cracks open the safe’. A palpable pressure, ‘The sweat just under the skin’*

The second occasion was a couple of weeks later at a crit in the studio. The way they are run at Bucks is that the work is viewed and discussed against certain criteria and only at the end of the process does the student have the opportunity to speak. I presented two paintings each made up of two canvases. The smaller second pair to be discussed resulted in a more interesting discussion. After some general ‘art speak’ observations one of the students described the piece as being, ‘like a deconstructed sandwich opened up with the painting being the bit in the middle’. This for me was the most important thing said. She had seen something that didn’t actually exist as she looked between the two canvases. Not the space on the wall, as they were almost abutted.

Theory; off the page.

So back to the studio this week. Wood, canvas, paint. To find that place.

*Stuart Cumberbatch speaking at the Abstract Critical panel discussion at the Jonathan Lasker exhibition at Timothy Taylor 29th November 2011

http://abstractcritical.com/2011/11/jonathan-lasker-the-80s/