 "Inclin", 2002 Oil on aluminium, 43 x 40,5 cm Ben Ravenscroft "Looking for Laurie Baker" Ben Ravenscroft is one of the few artists that can express a spiritual nature within the confines of the modern search of painterly means. His solid, meditative paintings kaleidoscope each moment of their making, exposing the marriage of colours, applications and surfaces that go into the final work. They are full yet reserved pieces, whose density is a testimony to the long consideration that precedes them. They are never over worked and the level of reflection involved belies their lightness. It is not naivety that gives them their simplicity but a subtly sophisticated judgement presented in an unaffected way. Ravenscroft's new starting point is the primed surface. This is the place from which the utilitarian act of preparation should give way to the activity of art making. However, his next move is to dissect the functional beginnings that the primed surface represents. He breaks down the white brush marks into segments, and sets his attention on each separately. Then he applies bands of systematised colours over the fragments until they approach black. We are left with a document of the act of preparation. It is a mistake to see them only as abstraction; these paintings are not exercises in rational processes or systems. They work as drawings or navigation aids. Ravenscroft always works with reference to what he can verify for himself, by himself and draws on a reverence for the environments and how people weave nature into the fabric of their lives. (Text by Sam Basu) Ausstellungsdauer: 14.9. - 26.10.2002 Öffnungszeiten: Mo-Sa 9 - 17 Uhr und nach Verabredung hales gallery 70 Deptford High Street GB-London SE8 4RT Telefon +44 20 8694 1194 Fax +44 20 8692 0471 E-Mail info@halesgallery.com www.halesgallery.com |
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