Many thanks to Georgina Coburn for her review of Sam Cartman's wonderful work currently showing at Kilmorack. The exhibition is called 'At the End of the Road' and it runs until the 13th June.
INSPIRED by Scottish and Italian landscapes, Sam
Cartman’s first solo exhibition at Kilmorack Gallery represents a significant
progression in the artist’s work to date.
THIS IS a show of absolute clarity in the skilled handling of paint,
distillation of visual language and command of composition. Characteristically
the relationship between elements of nature and human architecture create a
sense of immediacy and tension, with linear draughtsmanship and gestural
brushwork exquisitely balanced throughout. Moving more deeply into abstraction
has arguably strengthened the artist’s composition, and there is new verve and
dynamism in this latest body of work, taking Cartman’s practice to a whole new
level.
Towards Glenshee
The artist’s acute understanding of the essential crafting of images
through line, form, colour and texture is resoundingly evident. Driven by paint
handling and with the element of design less consciously visible than in
earlier work, formal elements of structural deliberation become fully
integrated with the most articulate and subtle handling of paint. Bold planar
treatment of oil on board, strong lines and a magnificently controlled palette
are tempered by a variation of mark that can only be fully appreciated in
viewing the original work. Cartman draws the eye and mind of the viewer into
the image with remarkable consistency, a confident rhythm which is sensed and
felt from the smallest scale work to the largest in the exhibition.
Towards Glenshee (Oil on board) is a beautiful
example of finely tuned pictorial, structural and human elements within the
landscape. A pure, bold expanse of aqua sky, undulating interlocking hills and
geometric forms are punctuated by singularly decisive marks of russet. Warm accents
of colour, typically rust, ochre or flashes of vibrant orange sit in contrast
with a predominantly cool, contemplative palette. This restrained use of colour
gives Cartman’s work a distinctive edge.
In Towards Glenshee the striking
crescent of white feels like a signature and a sense of unexpected depth is
created by larger forms in the far left foreground receding into a curvature of
seeing and perceiving the landscape. On closer inspection the plane of sky
reveals gentle stippling of paint, this together with areas such as a triangle
of fluid layers in blue, green and smeared charcoal, encourage consideration of
the qualities of the medium from flattened almost industrial treatment to
delicate stains. Allowing the white ground to emerge beneath the horizon line
creates an impression of luminous, Northern light often glimpsed behind a
curtain of sky or dense seemingly immovable cloud. Human dwellings are
suggested but largely subsumed in a complex arrangement of abstracted form. It
is the feeling of pure blue that immediately draws the viewer and like a great
piece of music the underpinning structure of the composition is seamless in its
execution.
Usan Diptych
The large scale Usan Diptych is
another superb example, an expanse of sky and scattered semi
industrial/residential buildings that brings the eye masterfully to the centre
of two equally balanced halves. The imprint of palette knife and roller in a
geometric cascade create unexpected nuances in the dominant sky; comprised of
two blue variations separated by a jagged band of white ground emerging from
beneath the painted surface. The loose treatment of the foreground, opaque or
stained pigment and animated gestural marks cleverly add to the viewer’s sense
of perspective, while the sparing use of eye catching warm colour: ochre,
yellow, russet and orange, placed with the utmost precision and instinct,
achieve a perfectly balanced composition. In his Single Panel Tryptich Cartman presents a complex
arrangement of interlocking man made architectural and semi organic forms
testing the structural and compositional boundaries of the image. This
exploration of the picture plane, paint quality, density and mark, allows the
artist to create a multi-layered response to humankind in the environment.
Temple 5
Temple 5 is a fascinating work in the
suggested relationship between human architecture and nature. The jutting apex
of the building suggests a stark purity of intent and aspiration in its heightened
perspective. The sharply defined vanishing point adds to the sense of human
presence in the landscape; the outline of stone walls, tiny darkened window and
shaded solidity contrasted with the more ephemeral smears of charcoal and ever
present blue/grey sky. Delicate textures of drizzled turpentine and a light
touch of ochre path invite closer inspection while sharp geometric accents of
purple and linear orange trace the eye’s movement to the horizon line.
Castle Road
Stylistic contrast in works such as Castle Road where
drafted, precise lines of architecture and tonal definition meet fluid paint
handling and pure abstraction are convincingly balanced in visual counterpoint.
This dynamic between design and spontaneous mark is exemplified in the reaction
between pigment and board creating a shifting sky of bled ultramarine in Roccasecca. Here the white architectural façade of the
building is juxtaposed with liquefied sky. Sharp linear perspective guides the
eye into the image but it is colour and paint density that governs our
emotional response to the image.
Outpost
Another highlight of the exhibition is Outpost, an image
divided by a serpentine line between foreground and mid-ground. To the left of
the composition, hard-edged abandoned structures in greyish blue and black
contrast with large boulders, stones and viscerally sketched grass in ochre,
tinged green, russet and orange. Treatment of the sky is poetically distilled
and immediately tactile, stained grey beneath white, with a curvature of
thickened paint bringing movement of cloud to the profound stillness and
isolation of the scene. Human habitation and its figurative absence in
Cartman’s compositions remains poised and enigmatic, an eternal dance between
natural and human marks in the landscape. Throughout this latest body of work
the artist delivers a sustained and potent exploration of the plastic elements
of image making and his chosen subject, creating finely balanced compositions
of expansive depth and insight.
© Georgina Coburn, 2013
Comments
Post a Comment