Peter Lanyon – Thermal

Notes on Crit

Showing: Drawing, Oil paintings and words.

Derek: Interesting line drawing, is this new? Very architectural like the skeleton/bones of the oil paintings. Like pulling something back. One of the oils which incorporate line with paint is a good crossover. It seems complete, is it a work in progress? The words sit well with the work.

Chris: Interesting to see the drawings, thought they were earlier works. The line/oil painting seems to be a progression. The drawings seem related to the virus. Control and disruption. Chaos and order. Love how the paintings operate, colour. The language is dated to British 50s/60s pre pop work. May be interesting to question this connection. The drawings reinforce this ref John Piper. War drawings. This chimes with current situation also. Look at this. Epoch of art making to sound against. The drawing and painting communicate well but less so the writing. Shift of distance ref poem. Language operates differently in the brain to paint. Paint doesn’t demand any pre-thinking, you are responding on the cuff. It waits for things to emerge. Words have to have a sense of prediction.

Debs: Dynamic disruptive drawings. Can that dynamic nature transfer to the oil paintings more? Loosened paint in the way that the ink does. There is movement in some of the work more so than others. Scale down to small oils. Are the words as a catalogue – elusive connections or a piece of work in its own right?

Andy: Architectural aspects was a surprise. Not seem this before in the work. Liked the way they were read with the oils. 20th and 21st century experimental drawings. Text could work as a gallery catalogue entry maybe. Words are a good way of accessing ways of communicating. It could be useful as a way of processing information. Drawing Architecture is a useful book to look at.

Brad: Adding drawings and text it seems to become a semiotic study of place. The paintings change when adding the other elements. Uncanny, familiar and scary. An aerial view.

Tabatha: The words feel like the beginning of something. Looking back to screen prints and visualizing sounds. Sound and the prints, visualising sound? Drawings seem controlled and then disrupted. Looks like crying tears, dripping over them. Crying is breaking the control. Feeling of the mistake. Helen Chadwick Viral landscapes in the 80’s. Anya: Good reference. Roberto Matta (artist) New York structures, physical entities. Picture plain, fighting with this. In and out of focus, push pull.

Mark: Control vs. lack of control. What if you brought the line into the painterly process? Maybe in the negative spaces maybe?

Anya: Language as a medium is a great idea to play with. Doesn’t matter if it’s connected. Good to play with it. The connection is that you are considering words as a medium as opposed to the way you use it. Look at other artists who use words. The commercial paintings you sell are less engaging than the new work. Drawings are good surprising. The chaotic parts don’t seem less controlled. Not false but they just look right. A balance is struck.

Peter Lanyon image: Thermals, currents, similar dynamic, vortices etc.

Look up:

Peter Lanyon

John Piper

Roberto Matta

Helen Chadwick. Virus ref

Book: Drawing arcitecture