Galerie Hubert Winter curated by Michael Bracewell
„'Ein Brief' - New Painting by Dexter Dalwood“

15.9 - 14.10.2017 Press release

Galerie Hubert Winter, Breite Gasse 17, 1070 Vienna
www.galeriewinter.at

Curator(s):

Michael Bracewell More

Michael Bracewell is a writer based in London. He has published several works of fiction and non-fiction, and has written widely on contemporary art and culture. He co-curated ‘The Secret Public: The Last Days of The British Underground 1977 – 1988’ (Kunstverein Munich/ICA, London 2007), and ‘The Dark Monarch: Magic and modernity in British Art’ (Tate St Ives, 2009) and more recently '….hounded by external events…' (Maureen Paley, London, 2016). His selected writings on art, 'The Space Between' were published in 2012.

Artist(s):

Dexter Dalwood More

Dexter Dalwood (b. 1960, Bristol, UK) is a rare instance of an artist equipped to examine how history is constructed and interpreted through the making of paintings which are both intellectually challenging and visually seductive. The artist’s juxtaposition of quotations and references from a broad and eclectic range of subjects is reflected in his transposition of the cut-and-paste of the collage technique to canvas. Not only does Dalwood possess a profound cultural and historical knowledge, he also perceives the connections between art history, politics, music, literature and personal experience, which he intimates with a remarkable lightness of touch. His paintings reward close observation, for the event or situation depicted is always reflected in the styles of painting that were developed during the periods referred to in the work. In Dalwood’s practice the medium of painting is not only examined and celebrated in terms of its history and legacy; Dalwood also demonstrates the enduring contemporary relevance of painting as a way of communicating how we experience the world in which we live. On the flat, painted surface Dalwood creates a breathtaking pluralism that refracts and collides the memory of the past with future recollections of the present. It is no coincidence that the subjects of his paintings are always physically absent, portrayed through depictions of the environments that they might have occupied. Their invisibility heightens the mystery and artifice of the scene but also removes the most recognisable aspect of figuration from works that ultimately communicate something that goes beyond depiction or language. Much more than the sum of their very disparate parts, Dalwood’s paintings make an uncompromising claim for the continuing tradition of the medium.

Exhibition text

More

Die Ausstellung ist eine Antwort auf das Prosawerk Ein Brief (1902) des Wiener Schriftstellers Hugo von Hofmannsthal, das auch als Brief des Lord Chandos an Francis Bacon bekannt wurde. Hofmannsthals mysteriöser, tiefgehender Text ist in Form eines Briefes von Lord Chandos an den englischen Philosophen Francis Bacon verfasst. Chandos entschuldigt sich in diesem, seine literarischen Aktivitäten eingestellt zu haben. Er berichtet, wie er allmählich seine Fähigkeit zu artikulieren, zu schreiben und selbst kohärente Sätze zu bilden verloren habe. Es ist, als sei ihm die Sprache ein zu vulgäres und sperriges Instrument, um damit die Intensität seiner sinnlichen und geistigen Erfahrungen zu transportieren. Er beendet den Brief mit dem Bekenntnis, dass er nun in Momenten intensiver empathischer Verbindung lebe, in welchen ihm Menschen und Orte zu Quellen göttlicher Offenbarung werden.

Photos

Dexter Dalwood: Saloon Cabin

Oil on canvas, 102 x 92 cm

Dexter Dalwood: You Need More Than Love

Oil on canvas, 101 x 124 cm

Dexter Dalwood: Isle of the Dead

Dexter Dalwood: Think with the Heart II

Oil on canvas, 124 x 101 cm

Galerie Hubert Winter curated by Michael Bracewell „'Ein Brief' - New Painting by Dexter Dalwood“

Curator(s):

Artist(s):

Exhibition text

Photos

Galerie Hubert Winter curated by Michael Bracewell
„'Ein Brief' - New Painting by Dexter Dalwood“