K AT E M O N TG O M E R Y
Dreamed House
K AT E M O N TG O M E R Y
K AT E M O N TG O M E R Y Dreamed House
LONG & RYLE 4 John Islip Street, London SW1P 4PX t : +44 (0) 20 7834 1434 • e: gallery@long-and-ryle.com www.longandryle.com • tues – fri 10 - 5:30 sat 11- 2 left: G re e n G a l l e r i e s 2 0 1 6 casein on birch panel 30 × 37 cm
A r t i s t ’s H o u s e 2 0 1 7 casein on birch panel 30 × 26 cm
The Paintings of Kate Montgomery
Lay patches of colour on a board and the board will stay flat, yet its flatness may start to flower. In the right hands, its surface enfolds, becomes intricate, as if this patch speaking to that, like one petal to another, drew you into their conversation. This basic magic of painting is raised to heights of subtlety in Kate Montgomery’s art. Here is a fully arrived original who has opted for her own constraints. Let the board be smooth blond birch ply; lay the pigments down in casein, which, buffed to a slight sheen, presents the viewer with a dense warm evenness of tone. Emphatically, then, there is no depth, and the picture declares itself a compact assemblage of interlocking colour units designed to adorn a room. And yet the picture, the more we surrender to it, turns out to be deeper than the room itself. For each of these fine-tuned compositions seems to wonder what it means to have a space of one’s own. A doll’s house, a stairwell, a garden or copse all offer ready metaphors for the mind – always, even if a horizon is visible, it feels as if we are placed inside, in a world of psychological textures. And that ‘we’ is first person plural, in that the figures who
occupy these interiors, economical ciphers for the self, are multiple. With their acutely eloquent turns of the head, this way and that, they suggest how the life of the mind is never simply a matter of here and now. Consciousness winds through attic corridors, it shuffles costumes, scenarios and roles, it is liable to be anywhere and everywhere. Where does it come from, that internal environment? It doesn’t feel as if it’s of our own making. Montgomery’s art doesn’t identify answers, psychoanalytically: rather, it teasingly scrambles its clues, patchworking the organic and geometric with fairytale fabulism. What it celebrates, however, is the flavoursomeness of inward thought. How rich and full, these russets and cobalts, these turquoises and purples! How well these hard-achieved, eversurprising placements of colour talk to one another. Joining in the discussion, our visual intelligence grows keener. Julian Bell
B e f o re t h e R a i n 2 0 1 7 casein on birch panel 30 Ă— 37 cm
A r t i s t ’s H o u s e I I 2 0 1 7 casein on birch panel 38 × 30 cm
Blue Boy 2 018 casein on birch panel 26 × 30 cm
C o u r t y a rd a t N i g h t 2 0 1 7 casein on birch panel 25 Ă— 16 cm
Conversation Piece 2 017 casein on birch panel 47 Ă— 60 cm
Fox at Night 2 017 casein on birch panel 45 × 62 cm
Ta p e s t r y C o a t 2 0 1 8 casein on birch panel 60 Ă— 47 cm
House by the Sea 2 018 casein on birch panel 38 Ă— 30 cm
Old Princess 2 017 casein on birch panel 30 Ă— 26 cm
S m a l l Wo r l d 2 0 1 7 casein on birch panel 47 Ă— 60 cm
S l e e p i n g B e f o re S w i m m i n g 2 0 1 8 casein on birch panel 38 Ă— 30 cm
Pool Side 2 017 casein on birch panel 60 Ă— 47 cm
O r n a m e n t a l G a rd e n s 2 0 1 8 casein on birch panel 26 Ă— 30 cm
Still Summer 2 017 casein on birch panel 37 Ă— 30 cm
S e a Vi e w 2 0 1 6 casein on birch panel 26 Ă— 30 cm
Short Story 2 017 casein on birch panel 30 Ă— 26 cm
Dance School 2 018 casein on birch panel 30 Ă— 26 cm
Vi s i t o r 2 0 1 8 casein on birch panel 38 Ă— 30 cm
Show Girls 2 018 casein on birch panel 30 Ă— 26 cm
LONG & RYLE