1981 Imagine – Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan.
Catalogue Introduction by Michael Parke-Taylor, Curator of Exhibitions.
Ann Clarke’s paintings have long sought to combine both painterly concerns with a private iconography of symbolic images. The artist has united both in this exhibition of recent works. Entitled Imagine, the viewer is invited to suggest numerous associations triggered by her imagery. At the same time, Clarke’s work remains a statement about painting; the formal appearance of the canvas when colours are applied boldly in figure-ground relationships.
The particular image common to these canvases was first conceived by means of collage. In the search for a design element that could act as an evocative vehicle for paint, the artist experimented with cut-out paper shapes. The result was an odd beehive or haystack-like formation which was subsequently painted as the basic component of each picture. The paintings in the exhibition are characterized by a series of horizontal marks within the image, while other lines radiate from the form, activating the ground.
While Clarke prefers to keep the symbolic nature of her iconography elusive, coming as it does from the recesses of the subconscious, the peculiar imagery in these paintings arises from the contemplation of an ivory tusk in her own collection. Reacting to its blunted form and bizarre striated surface, the artist perceived the tusk to be invested with a mysterious and primitive quality. Indeed, primitivism is an important source for Clarke who has also expressed an interest in prehistoric pictographs. The elemental simplicity of mark making to signify meaning has informed her present work. As an example she cites a pictographic form that was used to convey the female form, drawn as a rounded shape, while the male was represented by a linear feather-like device. This is not to analyze her paintings as a type of metaphor for the sexes. Rather, sources which carry a multitude of symbolic meanings have been used as material for working out pure painterly problems.
Although the referential nature of Clarke’s work is manifest, a more pressing concern for the artist is how the paintings look from a formal point of view. Clarke’s intuitive approach to image making is extended to paint application. Working directly from the tube has dictated the use of pure and un-mixed colours.
In the past, Clarke’s paintings were noted for their fluid and lyrical colour abstractions. The recent works are a departure, for even when her palette lightens, she contrives the appearance of clumsy technique. Paint is dragged or scumbled, and the artist sometimes uses her fingers to create pictures that in a positive sense belong to a messy type of aesthetic. The outcome is a crudely textured image set in a shallow space surrounded by a violent pattern of slash lines. When Clarke heightens her colour juxtapositions, for example red and purple, the dynamic is unsettling. The effect is calculated to disturb, and herein lies the power of these works.
Clarke’s paintings lend themselves to a serial conception whereby ideas may be explored without final resolution. Paradoxically the paintings appear awkward and out of control when they are in fact the product of careful and deliberate decisions. They combine a vision that is both childlike and sophisticated. Ann Clarke offers a challenge. Her imagery invites the imagination; her painting suggests an opportunity of formal analysis.
Ann Clarke lives in Edmonton. She is currently the Programme Co-ordinator for the Student’s Union Gallery at the University of Alberta.
Catalogue Introduction by Michael Parke-Taylor, Curator of Exhibitions.
Ann Clarke’s paintings have long sought to combine both painterly concerns with a private iconography of symbolic images. The artist has united both in this exhibition of recent works. Entitled Imagine, the viewer is invited to suggest numerous associations triggered by her imagery. At the same time, Clarke’s work remains a statement about painting; the formal appearance of the canvas when colours are applied boldly in figure-ground relationships.
The particular image common to these canvases was first conceived by means of collage. In the search for a design element that could act as an evocative vehicle for paint, the artist experimented with cut-out paper shapes. The result was an odd beehive or haystack-like formation which was subsequently painted as the basic component of each picture. The paintings in the exhibition are characterized by a series of horizontal marks within the image, while other lines radiate from the form, activating the ground.
While Clarke prefers to keep the symbolic nature of her iconography elusive, coming as it does from the recesses of the subconscious, the peculiar imagery in these paintings arises from the contemplation of an ivory tusk in her own collection. Reacting to its blunted form and bizarre striated surface, the artist perceived the tusk to be invested with a mysterious and primitive quality. Indeed, primitivism is an important source for Clarke who has also expressed an interest in prehistoric pictographs. The elemental simplicity of mark making to signify meaning has informed her present work. As an example she cites a pictographic form that was used to convey the female form, drawn as a rounded shape, while the male was represented by a linear feather-like device. This is not to analyze her paintings as a type of metaphor for the sexes. Rather, sources which carry a multitude of symbolic meanings have been used as material for working out pure painterly problems.
Although the referential nature of Clarke’s work is manifest, a more pressing concern for the artist is how the paintings look from a formal point of view. Clarke’s intuitive approach to image making is extended to paint application. Working directly from the tube has dictated the use of pure and un-mixed colours.
In the past, Clarke’s paintings were noted for their fluid and lyrical colour abstractions. The recent works are a departure, for even when her palette lightens, she contrives the appearance of clumsy technique. Paint is dragged or scumbled, and the artist sometimes uses her fingers to create pictures that in a positive sense belong to a messy type of aesthetic. The outcome is a crudely textured image set in a shallow space surrounded by a violent pattern of slash lines. When Clarke heightens her colour juxtapositions, for example red and purple, the dynamic is unsettling. The effect is calculated to disturb, and herein lies the power of these works.
Clarke’s paintings lend themselves to a serial conception whereby ideas may be explored without final resolution. Paradoxically the paintings appear awkward and out of control when they are in fact the product of careful and deliberate decisions. They combine a vision that is both childlike and sophisticated. Ann Clarke offers a challenge. Her imagery invites the imagination; her painting suggests an opportunity of formal analysis.
Ann Clarke lives in Edmonton. She is currently the Programme Co-ordinator for the Student’s Union Gallery at the University of Alberta.