BETH CARTER
Beaux Arts Bath
BETH CARTER
Minotaur (The Giant) Iron Resin Ed. 15 192 x 65 x 40 cm.
BETH CARTER - The instincts are a far better protection than all the intellectual wisdom in the world. - C G Jung Beth Carter’s world of sculpture and drawing features a cornucopia of dream-like, circus, or half man-half beast shape-shifters who at their core embody the contrasts characterised in Robert Browning’s ‘dangerous edge of things’- honest thieves, tender murderers, superstitious atheists. A wolf appears to contemplate his kill pityingly, while a fox steals into the night with a pheasant, which on closer inspection he holds delicately, in human hands, the bird appearing potentially injured rather than ripe for plucking. Carl Jung talked about dream animals being frightening, or ‘minatory’; about how they would often appear to the subconscious engaging in strange behaviour or exaggerated in size. This he claimed was connected to how we deal with our instincts, our inner nature; about coping with our raison d’être. The human being it seems, reveals himself to be prone simultaneously to contradictory forces,
accommodating the tendency to be both ‘goodie’ and ‘baddie’ in this chimeric hinterland. Some of Beth’s sculptures, despite engendering intuitive, emotional or animal responses, take as their cue her own life experience. Particularly significant is the death in recent years of her artist father, a physically imposing, larger-than- life figure who was prone to depression. Looking at her minotaur creations, the largest of these is physically impressive, but with his head lowered he appears trapped in his own labyrinth, shorn of his power, rendered gentle. Another minotaur has his attention fixed in concentration on a moth cupped delicately in his hands. Beth describes how in a large chaotic family her father’s discovery of reading changed his life and helped him to be more contemplative. In Man and Dog, though it is not the black dog of depression, the baleful
figure’s closed eyes shrouded in gauze take on a pensive, inward demeanour. Like most of her standing figures, the stance is diffident, demur even. The dog is heavy, but the man’s head is bowed in acceptance of his fate as carrier, the little clown’s hat bringing a touch of pathos to the piece. Figures which should carry threat are often disarmed by innocence. Standing Elephant depicts an adolescent boy’s lower body touching his pachyderm face self-consciously. Grinder’s Monkey seems less trickster and more a figure being comforted by his diminutive sidekick. Both monkey and elephant stand, as with Man and Dog, awkwardly, as if embarrassed by their very presence. The Frink-like Boxer has his head uncharacteristically raised (most figures look bashfully downward) though this seems only to emphasise that he may have taken a battering. His fighting days are surely numbered.
It is a notable irony that the smallest sculpture in the show wears a crown, and looks optimistically out towards the sunny uplands. The little guy is king. This is a typically oxymoronic trope, an elision of contrasting ideas that invites further consideration. Indeed the choice of animals is itself significant, the monkey and elephant with their highly developed intelligence calling to mind the gods Hanuman and Ganesh; or indeed the dogs, horses and bulls, which we can also in our global village spot as emissaries to the after-life, depicted on ancient walls from Lhasa or Luxor. The animist symbolism runs deep. These messengers, amid ill-fitting hats and masks and tassels, are somehow familiar to us, and part of the fun of considering their import is figuring out why. Or as Yeats put it, The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.
Aidan Quinn
Small King Bronze Ed. 15 34 x 13 x 7 cm. Wolf with Deer Bronze Ed. 15 71 x 28 x 23 cm.
Goodie Baddie Charcoal on Paper 120 x 100 cm.
Watching the Magic Charcoal on Paper 80 x 60 cm.
Antler Figure Bronze Ed. 15152 x 56 x 48 cm.
Flying Figure Bronze Ed. 15 154 x 89 x 56 cm.
Minotaur and Moth Bronze Ed. 15 32 x 25 x 30 cm.
Sleeping Minotaur Bronze Ed. 15 50 x 24 x 16 cm.
Petal Repairer Bronze Ed. 15 61 x 28 x 22 cm. Boxer Bronze Ed. 15 96 x 30 x 26 cm.
Broken Donkey Charcoal on Paper 150 x 100 cm.
Skeleton Boy Charcoal on Paper 132 x 100 cm.
Crowmask Bronze Ed. 15 35 x 24 x 18 cm.
Messenger Bronze Ed. 15 50 x 26x 24 cm.
Fairy on a Stool Bronze Ed. 15 37 x 13 x 9 cm.
Unicorn and Girl Bronze Ed. 15 Unicorn 22 x 14 x 8 cm. Girl 20 x 11 x 14 cm.
Fool Bronze Ed. 15 47 x 17 x 14 cm. Standing Elephant Bronze Ed. 15 130 x 30 x 46 cm.
Bright River Charcoal on Paper 76 x 56 cm.
Organ Grinder Charcoal on Paper 76 x 56 cm.
Man with Dog Bronze Ed. 15 89 x 33 x 22 cm
Bull and Rider Bronze Ed. 15 56 x 33 x 15 cm.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS 2015 2008-2015 2009-2015 2011-2015 2011-2015 2011-2015 2013 2013 2012 2012 2010, 2011 2011 2010 2010 2009, 2010 2010 2009 2008 2008-09 2005, 2008 2007-8 2008 2006 2006 2005-8 2004 2003 2000 2000 1999 1999 1997 1995
Beaux Arts Bath London Art Fair, Islington, London View Art Gallery, Bristol Affordable Art Fair, Battersea, London Bertrand Delacroix Gallery, New York Bo.lee Gallery, Bath Axelle Fine Arts, New York, Boston Nocturnes: ‘Romancing the Night’, The National Arts Club, New York Unnatural-Natural History, Royal West of England Academy Art Melbourne, Melbourne Art London, Chelsea, London Darkness to Light, The Octagon Chapel, Bath Art of Giving, Group Show and Charity Auction, Saatchi Gallery, London Affordable Art Fair, New York Mauger Modern Gallery, Bath, London Black Swan Arts, Frome Chichester National, (Selected National Art Competition) National Open Exhibition, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol Joy Experiment, Cross-Artform Collective, Touring S.W. England Badcocks Gallery, Newlyn, Cornwall Autumn Open Exhibition, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol Works on Paper, The Royal Academy, London Beauty and the Beast, Stourhead, National Trust / Arts Council England, Queens Street Gallery, Emsworth. Plus One Plus Two Galleries, London Olympia Artfair, London (Individual Artist Award) Group Show, Six Chapel Row Contemporary Art Gallery, Bath Selected Open Autumn Exhibition, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol Wandsworth Arts Festival, Alders & Hobbs Dept. Store, London Milfield Open Exhibition, Group Show, Somerset Spike Island Launch Exhibition, Bristol Fabulous Beasts, Group Show, Hampshire Sculpture Trust, Hampshire Northern Graduate Show
AWARDS & TRAVEL 2007-09 2006 2004 2002 2000 1997 1996 1996 1995
Travelled to Gambia, Kenya and Tanzania Two month Residency at Bronze Casting Foundry, in Guadalajara, Mexico Olympia Artfair, London (Individual Artist Award) Travelled and Worked in New Zealand (Womad: World of Music and Dance) South West Arts, UK, Individual Artist Award to produce new body of work Travel in Sri Lanka and India to Study devotional / mythological Sculpture Northern Arts, UK, Travel Award to Crete South West Arts, UK, Travel assistance grant Northern Graduates Show, The Royal College of Art, London ( First Prize)
Fox and Pheasant Bronze Ed. 15 50x27x25cm.
Grinder’s Monkey Bronze Ed. 15 82 x 27 x 19 cm.
FRONT COVER:
Beaux Arts Bath Oil on Linen12/13 York St. Bath BA1 1NG 01225464850 172 X 123 cm. info@beauxartsbath.co.uk www.beauxartsbath.co.uk
RIBBONS OF WATER II
Beaux Arts Bath 12/13 York Street Bath BA1 1NG 01225 464850
info@beauxartsbath.co.uk www.beauxartsbath.co.uk