Reviews
Review of Kilmorack Gallery Exhibition, 2008
18/04/2008
Extract from Review by Georgina Coburn published in Highlands and Islands Arts Journal
THE WORK of Edinburgh-based artist Alan McGowan makes a stunning debut in Kilmorack’s latest exhibition. Superb draughtsmanship, superior paint handling and a deep understanding of the inner workings of the human figure define this artist’s work. Although the McGowan’s knowledge of anatomy is obvious, working consistently with the same models has allowed him to go deeper to convey the essence of the subject.
Acute and penetrating, his work in oil paint, beeswax, sawdust and straw is immediately tactile with an exquisite range of mark, from soft tonal definition and finely drawn contours to the raw energy of drips, splatters and thick impasto. Powerful and delicately vulnerable in equal measure, McGowan’s vision exhibits the uncompromising edge of Francis Bacon in his ‘Sitting Figure’, the sensitivity of Degas in the soft rendering and intimate scale of his sublimely feminine ‘Untitled Figure’, and high contrast in his “Inverted” cruciform series, reminiscent of Goya or Rembrandt.
More robust, looser handling in some of the inverted figures also recall the earthy realism of Daumier. This is strongly conscious work, conscious of the tradition of figurative painting that has gone before and so able to definitively forge its own mark. In McGowan’s hands paint is not about surfaces but grappling with life. For the artist “Art is prefaced by hunger, it moves to meet a feeling inside.” McGowan succeeds in enabling the viewer to experience that same hunger.
His large scale ‘Untitled Figure’ (hung to the right of the vestry entrance) is a particularly fine example, the kneeling figure curved in on itself dominating the composition. The control and energy of this work is remarkable, the fluidity of the paintwork and the bulk of the main form beautifully balanced. Seen from a distance the earthiness of black, ochre, sienna and umber give way to the sublime definition of back, ribs and belly made visible through golden dappled light and finely drawn contours perfected by every brush stroke.
Straw, wax and impasto echo the origins of creation; human life created in clay and ending in dust. The whole figure is defined by an abstract shroud of black marks, occupying a timeless space with no physical setting and bound to our collective sense of mortality. This is an impressive and memorable body of work grounded in the discipline of life drawing, bold experimentation, accurate observation and pure expression.
© Georgina Coburn, 2008
Extract from Review of ALLAN MACDONALD, ALAN MCGOWAN, JANE MACNEILL (Kilmorack Gallery, 2008)
Published by Highlands and Islands Arts Journal
(http://www.hi-arts.co.uk/Default.aspx.LocID-hianewnlb.RefLocID-hiacg5005.Lang-EN.htm)
Acute and penetrating, his work in oil paint, beeswax, sawdust and straw is immediately tactile with an exquisite range of mark, from soft tonal definition and finely drawn contours to the raw energy of drips, splatters and thick impasto. Powerful and delicately vulnerable in equal measure, McGowan’s vision exhibits the uncompromising edge of Francis Bacon in his ‘Sitting Figure’, the sensitivity of Degas in the soft rendering and intimate scale of his sublimely feminine ‘Untitled Figure’, and high contrast in his “Inverted” cruciform series, reminiscent of Goya or Rembrandt.
More robust, looser handling in some of the inverted figures also recall the earthy realism of Daumier. This is strongly conscious work, conscious of the tradition of figurative painting that has gone before and so able to definitively forge its own mark. In McGowan’s hands paint is not about surfaces but grappling with life. For the artist “Art is prefaced by hunger, it moves to meet a feeling inside.” McGowan succeeds in enabling the viewer to experience that same hunger.
His large scale ‘Untitled Figure’ (hung to the right of the vestry entrance) is a particularly fine example, the kneeling figure curved in on itself dominating the composition. The control and energy of this work is remarkable, the fluidity of the paintwork and the bulk of the main form beautifully balanced. Seen from a distance the earthiness of black, ochre, sienna and umber give way to the sublime definition of back, ribs and belly made visible through golden dappled light and finely drawn contours perfected by every brush stroke.
Straw, wax and impasto echo the origins of creation; human life created in clay and ending in dust. The whole figure is defined by an abstract shroud of black marks, occupying a timeless space with no physical setting and bound to our collective sense of mortality. This is an impressive and memorable body of work grounded in the discipline of life drawing, bold experimentation, accurate observation and pure expression.
© Georgina Coburn, 2008
Extract from Review of ALLAN MACDONALD, ALAN MCGOWAN, JANE MACNEILL (Kilmorack Gallery, 2008)
Published by Highlands and Islands Arts Journal
(http://www.hi-arts.co.uk/Default.aspx.LocID-hianewnlb.RefLocID-hiacg5005.Lang-EN.htm)