STAR LETTER
This month’s star letter writer will receive a £50 gift card, courtesy of GreatArt, to spend on over 50,000 available products. Gift cards can be redeemed in-store at GreatArt Shoreditch, 41-49 Kingsland Road, London E2 8AG, telephone 08433 571 572, and online at www.greatart.co.uk We will share the winner’s name and address with them for this purpose only.
The power of figurative painting
I enjoyed the excellent article ‘Perspective and all that’ by Martin Kinnear (July 2019 issue) in which he discusses issues surrounding the illusion of depth in figurative painting. He referred to the development of abstract art, ie works containing no reference to three-dimensional objects, in the early 20th century. The movement came about as artists looked for a more honest approach to painting, allowing colour and form to be acknowledged in their own right rather than in the service of illusion. But, looking round exhibitions today, even the most avant-garde, I see that abstract art hasn’t taken over. Figurative art has evolved in many directions, but it hasn’t gone away. It remains as important today as it ever did. Why?
Martin writes ‘…if you wish to create the illusion of depth you are entering into a visual game with your viewers, creating into a shared understanding that your picture is flat but it looks as if it’s not.’ Here, I think, is the answer to the power and continuing popularity of figurative painting, which is not intellectually dishonest because the viewer is in on the trick. That means artists and viewers can see two contradictory aspects of a painting at the same time. Somewhere, in that intriguing space between the 3D illusion and the reality of flatness, is an enjoyable tension that keeps us wanting to look.
Carol Owen, by email