HARRY STEEN Interiors
HARRY STEEN Interiors
Jonathan Cooper 20 Park Walk London SW10 0AQ t: +44 (0)20 7351 0410 mail@jonathancooper.co.uk jonathancooper.co.uk
Introduction
If we remind ourselves that the house is an object and a container for objects, Harry Steen’s recent works might be considered still life paintings. An elusive sense of homeliness characterises each of these interior views, hinting at the lives that make houses homes. Something has always just happened, or is about to, a tension that attests on one hand to the artist’s intimacy with the spaces he depicts—namely those of Rainthorpe Hall—and on the other to his ability to imagine, to create, this intimacy too easily called ‘domesticity.’ Steen’s architecturally modelled spaces seem to continue the artistic tradition of using design to organise perspective. However, this conceals a richer historical dialogue: his fascination with what photography cannot capture leads him to create moments of cinematic suspense in environments we first read as idyllic, languid, safe. The limitations of photography’s mechanical optics become the strength of Steen’s doting eyes and fine technique. The attentions of a painter help us approach these interiors from the position of familiarity, an effect compounded—and not without wit—by a visual repertoire drawn from the privileged life of the country house and its 2
constant cinematic reinterpretation. Somewhere between guest and intruder, the viewer is drawn inside by a reflective atmosphere reminiscent of a film still: a moment of arrested movement, created perhaps only by the intervention of an artist. Guided through his formal experiment of arranging these interior spaces, richly depicted textures of timber, fine fabrics and blown glass display the painter’s comprehension of reflection and refraction. The highly organised colours of vermillion, lead-tin yellow, and ochres used are championed by the early Venetian painters, whom Steen much admires. He says, “When stealing from the masters, you create something new.” As an artist, Steen is meticulous, making his paint in the oldfashioned Dutch process and carefully selecting his canvases. Rather tight lipped, when speaking about this exhibition, he was keen to remind us about what Balthus said to art critic John Russell, who wrote the introduction to a 1968 exhibition, “The best way to begin is to say: ‘Balthus is a painter of whom nothing is known. And now let us have a look at the paintings.’”
House in Wales – Urn in Window Oil on board 9 × 12 ins 22.9 × 30.5 cm
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House in Wales – Urn in Library Oil on board 12 × 9 ins 30.5 × 22.9 cm
Rainthorpe – Piano in Hall Oil on board 24 × 36 ins 61 × 91.4 cm
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Rainthorpe – Door to Wing Oil on board 16 × 12 ins 40.6 × 30.5 cm
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Jade Grapes and Scale Oil on board 9 × 12 ins 22.9 × 30.5 cm
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Second Glass on Sash Oil on board 12 × 9 ins 30.5 × 22.9 cm
House in Wales – Hall Oil on board 18 × 24 ins 45.7 × 61 cm
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House in Wales – into Library Oil on board 16 × 12 ins 40.6 × 30.5 cm
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House in Wales – Library Oil on board 18 × 24 ins 45.7 × 61 cm
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Rainthorpe – Stairs by Bathroom Oil on board 16 × 12 ins 40.6 × 30.5 cm
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Christmas Lights down Hill Oil on board 16 × 12 ins 40.6 × 30.5 cm
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Little Corridor Oil on board 16 × 12 ins 40.6 × 30.5 cm
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House in Wales – Room in Stable Flat Oil on board 12 × 9 ins 30.5 × 22.9 cm
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House in Wales – Tack Room Door Oil on board 12 × 9 ins 30.5 × 22.9 cm
Rainthorpe – Cellar Oil on board 12 × 16 ins 30.5 × 40.6 cm
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Commissions undertaken
Jonathan Cooper 20 Park Walk  London  SW10 0AQ t: +44 (0)20 7351 0410 mail@jonathancooper.co.uk jonathancooper.co.uk
Jonathan Cooper 30