 Doctor, 2006 acrylic & collage on linen, 122.5 x 90.5 cm Stuart Cumberland Carry on Painting "Stop messin' about" - Kenneth Williams The Modern Art I like most of all never stops messin' about. At some level it is always sending itself up and mocking us too. Some of the best old paintings do this as well, but their reverential position in huge old museums and heavy books does not make it easy for us to laugh any more. Look at the glint in Velazquez's eye or those old flaccid Rembrandt self-portraits - all the mockery and tragicomedy - no wonder Picasso made all those hilarious late cover versions. Laughter has been the grade for me putting together the pieces in this exhibition. I have been laughing at my lack of decent work, ideas and subject matter, I have found it funny that the gallery is understandably very concerned - "we are heading for a car crash situation" and when asked how another fruitless and increasingly desperate day at the studio went I have laughed hysterically. Of course this has something to do with fear but sometimes, infrequently, but best of all, I laugh when all of the above seem to produce something I recognise as of value. Using the stereotypes of the Carry On team has been a very amusing way to send up both Modern Art and a particularly cheap and saucy - British - view. The great thing about the Carry On mould is how Sid James really is Picasso. The infamous Sidney laugh is about as good a description of Picasso and his lascivious eyes as you could hope to hear and the same goes for Kenneth Williams as Warhol. On a broader theme I enjoy the Carry On parallel because of how the local and diminutive sense of scale of the Carry On films reflects British Art generally and its comparatively minor achievements. I am very fondly taking the piss and through my recurrent use of Modern Art cliché I have always been taking the piss, affectionately. The questionable figure of the fraudulent or impostor artist is the best and funniest one. Look at Manzoni - he shit in a tin and sold it for its weight in gold. Stuart Cumberland (b. 1970) lives and works in London. This is his second solo show in the gallery. Recent exhibitions include "The Way We Work Now", Camden Arts Centre, 2005 and "Works on Paper", Sprüth Magers Projekte, Munich 2004. Exhibition: 3 March - 8 April 2006 Gallery hours: Wed-Sat 12am - 6pm Kate MacGarry Gallery 95-97 Redchurch Street UK-London E2 7DJ Telephone +44 020.7613 3909 Email mail@katemacgarry.com www.katemacgarry.com |
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