Drawings & paintings realised from abstract beginnings by Gerry Hunt. Artist's paintings and drawings invite you into a space developed from abstract beginnings into representation. Humour, seduction and surprise all play a part in the experience of the work.
Drawings & paintings realised from
abstract beginnings by
GERRY HUNT
Gerry Hunt's paintings and drawings invite you into a space developed
from abstract beginnings into representation. Humour, seduction and
surprise all play a part in the experience of the work.
Using only the primary colours or a stick of charcoal, Gerry Hunt
harnesses elements of fifty years of experience, of living and making
art. The work is formally driven. The rectangle is worked on until a
little bit of real form and space appears, perhaps a fragment of
landscape, a figure, an animal or even an aeroplane. This fragment has
to be a complete surprise for the artist. This is then developed, losing
as little formal integrity as possible into some sort of 'believable'
scene, thereby drawing the process to a close. The realism is felt to be
found rather than created. He works towards believable spaces and
approximations of landscape without losing touch with the formal process
of painting. The surprise experienced by the artist is similar to how we
can be surprised by the recollection of our own dreams.
Over the years, Gerry has shown his work widely in this country and in
New York.
_________
GERRY HUNT
Biography
Born: Ist. May 1927 in London
Art Education:
Camberwell School of Art and the Slade School of Fine Art
Teaching:
Camberwell School of Art and the Byam Shaw School of Art
Exhibitions:
Ko Raw Gallery 'Paintings, Drawings and Text' March 1998
Coventry Gallery. 'Eros' I', curated by Ursula Deniflée, October 1996
Concourse Gallery, Byam Shaw School of Art, 1993
Camberwell School of Art Gallery, 'Metamorphic Drawings II' 1988
Camberwell School of Art Gallery, 'Metamorphic Drawings I' 1986
Coracle Press Gallery, Monochrome Paintings and Freestyle Drawings' 1980
Coracle Press Gallery, 'Expanded Moments', Photographic works, 1980
I.C.A. New Gallery, 'Monochromes', a collective conceptual painting
show, 1976
Greenwich Theatre Gallery, 'Perverse Perspective Paintings', 1968
Publication:
'Some Principles and Practice of Twelve Modern Art Styles', Coracle
Press, 1980
Selected Group Shows:
Impromptu Gallery, Brighton Festival, May 2000
Bankside Browser, Tate Gallery, April-May 1999
Impromptu Gallery, Brighton Festival, May 1999
Kettles Yard , Cambridge, 'Verbiage'1979
Tolly Cobbold, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 1977
Reese Palley Gallery, New York, 1971
John Moores, Liverpool, 1963, 1965, 1989
London Group, 1957, 1961, 1963, 1964
Artist's Statement:
In recent years I have started each painting with purely formal,
open-ended, classical Abstract Expressionist intentions, until some sort
of figurative scenario presents itself to me. Whereupon, with as little
sacrifice as possible of the pure painting so far achieved, I encourage
a believable real scene to emerge.
When I draw with charcoal on paper, which is how I first became aware of
this possibility in my work, it usually resulted in figures and/or
animals, caught in some rather strange and sometimes funny 'in between'
situations. Recently, with gradually increasing success, I have begun to
achieve this in my paintings. In order to approach the technical
simplicity of using just a stick of charcoal, as I do when I draw on
paper, while using oil paint on canvas, I have restricted my palette to
the three primary colours and white.
Open: Wed to Sun from 11am to 5pm
Cafe Gallery Projects, The gallery, by the Lake, Southwark Park,
Bermondsey, London SE16 2UA.
Signposted from Canada Water Tube/Bus station which is on the Jubilee
and East London Lines.
Free entry, the gallery is fully accessible to people with disabilities