MAURICE COCKRILL RA – New Paintings
2nd
– 26th June 2009
Adam
Gallery, 24 Cork St, London W1S 3NJ
Adam
Gallery is delighted to announce a solo exhibition of new paintings by Maurice
Cockrill. As Keeper of the Royal Academy Schools since 2004, Cockrill
works at the heart of the Visual Arts world, and remains one of the most
original artists working in Britain today.
Cockrill's
work is in many private and public collections including the British Museum,
Arts Council of Great Britain, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, and the Royal
Academy of Arts. A retrospective of his work (1974-1994) was held at the Walker
Art Gallery, Liverpool (1995) and a further retrospective was held at the Royal
West of England Academy (1998). This exhibition represents a celebration and
re-appraisal of his career that is long overdue.
These
new paintings are gutsy vivid compositions that speak straight to the realm of
emotion. The artist is famous for his breadth of techniques and themes, saying:
'the artists I've admired most, like Picasso, are the protean ones. I'd rather
be changing shape than just be doing the same thing time after time.' Yet these
paintings demonstrate a supreme confidence of colour and form: a synthesis and
culmination of this extraordinary painter's career.
The
serpentine and lyrical curves in paintings such as 'Jade Garden'
(illustrated above right) reveal Cockrill's preoccupation with organic forms,
especially water and the phases of a river. The curves can be seen as river-maps
flowing round the canvases – reminiscent of series of pictures such as the
'Conwy River Cycle' (1998). Rivers are important to Cockrill as they
evoke the cycle of life – birth, maturity, decay and
regeneration.
The
complexity of Cockrill's painting technique involves layering, pouring paint and
blocking out sections only to be revealed in the painting's final shape. Two
part compositions, such as 'Still Alive in the Trunk' (illustrated above
left), suggest oppositions and divisions that are important in Cockrill's work
such as male and female, narrative and decorative, and freedoms and
limitations.
Adam
Gallery, 24 Cork Street, London W1S 3NJ, United
Kingdom.
tel: 0207 439 6633 or e-mail: info@adamgallery.com Opening hours: Monday – Friday 10 – 6, Saturday 11-3.