16 Sept 2011 to 22 Oct 2011
Tuesday - Saturday 10am - 6pm
Anthony Reynolds Gallery
60 Great Marlborough Street
W1F 7BG
London
United Kingdom
Europe
T: +44 (0) 207 439 2201
F: +44 (0) 207 439 1869
M:
W: www.anthonyreynolds.com
Perseus holds the Gorgon’s head; Apollo pokes his bloodied sword at the flayed body of Marsyas; Adam and Eve are banished from ; Christ lies beaten, crucified, dead before resurrection. But these grim events are imagined in the exquisite delicacy of watercolour.
Men, women, monsters and Christ. Austen dips his brush into the pellucid colour and from the skin of water is born the skin of flesh. A gesture so light, so ethereal, so economical and yet the source of tragedy, mystery, cruelty and death. Transformation. Austen is a master of his medium; he is one of the finest draughtsmen working today.
The human figure, in its vulnerability, comedy, grandeur, pathos, innocence, beauty has no more lucid or economical interpreter. These few works on paper, so materially delicate, stroking the surface, resonate with an extraordinary intensity of emotion. Their nakedness is total, their comedy is pathetic but their mythological grounding and technical brilliance give them a profound inevitability.
Two of Austen’s paintings are also included in the exhibition. Once again, despite the grand statement of their figuration they are born out of a refined miniaturism and delicacy of touch; the small brush marks and charcoal abrasions building up to an absorbing surface intensity.Transformation again: text to image; black to white; drawing to painting. No mere lepidopteran this Papillon but a spreading of our own wings, bursting from the dark. A loss of and the embrace of knowledge. No ordinary tree this charcoal labyrinth but a pubic thicket of branches, a fantastic growth, a painter’s foreplay left as the drawing that anticipates the paint.
In recent years, Austen has expanded his work into film with considerable critical acclaim. In a series of short silent black-and-white pieces he has explored power of the medium to transform the simple image but it is Austen’s eye for that image that is remarkable. Two longer scripted films, Crackers and End of Love have been screened widely both in this country and abroad. Austen’s most recent museum exhibition was at Modern Art Oxford early this year.He was also featured in the acclaimed exhibition Watercolour at Tate and his work is in many important public collections in the , Europe and the USA .
Preview Thursday 15th September 20116 - 8 pm Open 16th September - 22nd October 2011 Tuesday - Saturday 10am - 6pm
For all press enquiries and to arrange a press preview please contact Daniel Davis, daniel@anthonyreynolds.com
