Nigel Hall
dal 5/9/2002 al 5/10/2002
Segnalato da
5/9/2002
Nigel Hall
Art Space Gallery, London
Edge and Shadow - Works on Paper 1975 - 2002. Selected from work made over the last twenty-five years or so, this show aims to reveal the evolution of this aspect of his practise.
EDGE and SHADOW - Works on Paper 1975 - 2002
Nigel
Hall is well known internationally for sculpture of extreme refinement.
He is less well known for his drawings and although they are included
in major collections worldwide, there has never been an exhibition in
the UK devoted to them. Selected from work made over the last twenty-five
years or so, this show aims to reveal the evolution of this aspect of
his practise.
Hall refers to his drawings as being '... not studies for sculpture but related explorations, freed from the laws
of physics that a sculptor must obey.' and although emphasis shifts
with time in their evolution, certain common concerns infuse the work
so that they achieve a tremendous homogeneity: elegant formal restraint,
geometric clarity, linearity, stillness, spatial interval and an interest
in the ways that the mind follows the eye to imagine volume and space
suggested by line and edge. They are drawings that tease the eye and
intrigue the mind with their linear and volumetric subtleties.
In the early geometric drawings from the mid
70s, charcoal is used layer upon layer to build up a rich density of
black with the pure white of the paper piercing through. Through the
80s they develop a sparse linear simplicity and in the 90s hard edged
geometric forms, sometimes with blocks of local colour, are combined
with loose areas of charcoal dust. Most recently the image is made up
of a series of diagonal charcoal lines overlaid, one over the other,
until a sufficient density has been built on top of the illusionary
space afforded by the paper.
Also included is a selection of his rarely seen
informal landscape drawings which Hall makes constantly wherever he
goes. Recently these landscapes have focused on Switzerland where he
spends time each year walking in the mountains, and although they stand
for very different things to the abstract drawings, they do offer an
insight into his endless curiosity with the world as he experiences
and records it. They are part of the creative research that informs
the main work.
Born in Bristol in 1943, Nigel Hall trained at
the West of England College, Bristol (1960-64), the Royal College of
Art (1964-67) and a Harkness Fellowship to study in the USA (1964-67).
His work has been widely exhibited both in this country and abroad and
he has drawings in the permanent collections of the Tate Gallery, Arts
Council of Great Britain, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Museum
of Modern Art in New York together with museums in Australia, France,
Germany, Japan, Denmark and Scotland.
Art Space Gallery
84 St Peter's Street N1 8JS
London