Pears #6

A slight shuffle in the position of the 6 pears as featured immediately previously, again (indeed, as habitually) observed 'contre jour', but not on this occasion also drawing against the light as it faded into dusk, instead enjoying the luxury & freshness of a morning session which brought intermittent sunlight, with the drawing process (as record of time spent looking & representing) thus attempting to capture something of this aspect of the development of the light conditions into the progression of its own temporality.


graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm

Note how the developing marks upon the surface of one of the pears form an approximation of facial features, thus lending something of a 'portrait' aspect to proceedings within the context of representing the particular forms & features of the individual objects within the general group.

Note also how something similarly 'facial' occurs within the subtle colour & tonal transitions of the keenly observed & wittily captured representation of the form & surface of the pear in Euan Uglow's monumental 'Fruit Pyramid'...


(image from 'Euan Uglow: the Complete Paintings', Yale, 2007)

Taking the theme further, & into the realm of anthropomorphism, one recalls Magritte's 'Lyricism', painted in 1947 during the period of the artist's 'Renoiresque', 'Impressionist' stylistic departure,


(image taken from Suzi Gablik, 'Magritte', T&H 'World of Art' series, 1985)

& an earlier visual memory yet, of Daumier's caricature of King Louis Philippe, satirically representing the monarch's decline in public popularity, his head gradually transforming into a pear!


Honoré Daumier 'Les Poires', pencil, 1831

Soundtrack:


Portishead 'Dummy' & 'Portishead'

Artists & Models

graphite & putty eraser/diptych: 2 x 20x30cm
source: 2nd & 4th generation B&W p/copies of original B&W & colour reproductions in 'Magritte' (Paquet: Taschen)

Picking up again the sub-thread of ‘duality’ that informed a pair of the recentish drawings, this diptych is based upon a photograph of Georgette & Rene Magritte enacting the pose of the figures in the latter’s painting ‘Attempting the Impossible’ (both dating from 1928), the two images juxtaposed in the drawing (thus incorporating different forms of representation – in their original form - within the same plane) as indeed they are in the original source, across the opposite pages 60 & 61 of Marcel Paquet’s Taschen-published volume on Magritte, subtitled ‘Thought Rendered Visible’.

As has become habitual, the reproductions of photograph & painting were subjected to a photomechanical degrading process, by taking copies from copies, prior to transcription, bringing their surface & tonal appearance closer together, although the personal style of Magritte’s art retains its separateness from that of the nature of the photograph, more so perhaps than did the previous example of a similar juxtaposition with the work of Anna King. Interesting to note that the tonal emphasis of the photograph & Magritte’s painting becomes largely transposed, thus aiding the composition of the diptych, which thus acquires a light central focus.

Soundtrack:


Test Match Special WI v Eng days 1-5, 4th Test
Tricky 'Knowle West Boy'
Black Box Recorder 'England Made Me'
Portishead 'Third'
Go-Betweens 'Liberty Belle & the Black Diamond Express'

Test Match Special once again providing essential listening, particularly the 3rd day's play & the consequent quality of opinion & erudite debate centring on the referred umpiring decisions: broadcasting at its compelling best.