Jamie Shovlin
dal 17/4/2012 al 25/5/2012
Segnalato da
17/4/2012
Jamie Shovlin
Haunch of Venison Yard, London
Various Arrangements. A series of 17 new large-scale paintings based on the cover designs of the Fontana Modern Masters series. The works in this exhibition represent titles that were scheduled for publication but for unknown reasons did not appear.
This exhibition will present a series of seventeen new large-scale paintings based on the cover designs of the Fontana Modern Masters series, a set of pocket guides published in the 1970s on eminent writers, philosophers and thinkers such as Sigmund Freud, Franz Kafka and Marcel Proust.
The paintings in this exhibition represent titles that were scheduled for publication but for unknown reasons did not appear. Driven by a fascination of the ambition and appearance of the Fontana series, and a longstanding interest in typography and graphic design, Shovlin devised a system - set out in a colour wheel - that would allow him to produce paintings of each of these unpublished and unknown book covers.
In the first gallery space the exhibition reveals the methodology Shovlin used to produce the paintings with a display of the original Fontana Modern Masters books, the formula used to colour-match the large canvases to smaller watercolour versions, and the colour wheel itself, which serves as a key to the entire project. The large canvasses are displayed throughout the two larger gallery spaces.
Considered a design classic the Fontana Modern Masters series are instantly recognisable due to the vivid geometric image on the cover. The books were published in six separate sets and each set has its own distinctive cover design. In order to predict the colours and pattern that might have made up the cover design of the unpublished books, Shovlin created a points system that he used to score the subject - or Modern Master - of each book. Criteria such as the number of pages in their book, the number of other Modern Master texts cited in the book bibliography, whether they were a Nobel Prize winner and so on were counted by Shovlin and recorded in the colour wheel. The total score could be interpreted to indicate the success, popularity or intellectual weight of each Modern Master but also, working from the covers of existing books, the colour and composition of the new cover designs.
The outcome of this system results in a variety of potential designs for each cover - one of which was selected by Shovlin as a primary design. The failed designs were incorporated into the paintings as each canvas was painted and repainted, burying the variations under the selected design that sits at the front of the picture. A trace of each preceding layer is retained through the various spills, drips, lines and overlaps evident in the final surface of each painting, hinting at the intrinsic flaws in the artist’s self-devised system and the value of classificatory systems in everyday life.
Press Information
For more information or images please contact:
Elizabeth Flanagan, Head of Press Tel: +44 (0)20 7478 9669 / 079818 017 434 Email: eflanagan@hofv.com
Tala Mahjoub, Press Assistant Tel: +44 (0)20 7478 6635 Email: tmahjoub@hofv.com
Private View: 18 April 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Haunch of Venison Yard
103 New Bond Street London W1S 1ST United Kingdom
Hours:
10.00 - 18.00 Mon - Fri
10.00 - 17.00 Sat