TIM MAGUIRE
TIME AND NATURE
TIM MAGUIRE
TIME AND NATURE
29 March - 22 April 2012
LIST OF WORKS Untitled 20120101, 2012, oil on canvas, 182 x 162 cm Untitled 20120103, 2012, oil on canvas, 160 x 300 cm Untitled 20111003, 2011, oil on canvas, 180 x 180 cm Untitled 20120301, 2012, oil on canvas, 129 x 250 cm Untitled 20111002, 2011, oil on canvas, 182 x 404 cm, diptych Untitled 20111101, 2011, oil on canvas, 180 x 160 cm Untitled 20120102, 2012, oil on canvas, 183 x 398 cm, diptych Bawley Point, 2012, high definition video, 10 minutes, ed. 5 + 1 AP Untitled 20070202, 2007, oil on canvas, 182 x 404 cm, diptych Untitled 20120302, 2012, oil on canvas, 183 x 244 cm
TIME AND NATURE In 1989 I began a series of paintings based on 17th century Dutch and Flemish still life paintings. I was particularly interested in the inherent theme of vanitas, and its symbolic reference to mortality and the fleeting nature of our lives. These early still lifes often contained memento mori, (literally, reminders of death) that evoked the passing of time - watches, burnt down candles, skulls - and of course signs of the decay of nature: fallen petals, drooping stalks, and rotting fruit visited by flies and insects. Still life as a genre was an affirmation of temporality - although life has been stilled in these paintings, time itself marches on. Indeed some of the earliest European still lifes were painted on the backs of portraits, presumably to remind the sitters that while their images had been immortalised, their actual bodies nonetheless remained subject to the immutable laws of death and decay. Soon Ripe, Soon Rotten, 1991, oil on canvas, 45 x 45 cm (detail) Collection: Allens Arthur Robinson
Nevertheless, those paintings do in some way stop the ticking clocks - the images of those old flowers are preserved in the aspic of oil paint, long after the actual blooms that served as their models have gone. But these painstakingly fashioned paintings can seem frozen and stilted, a zombie life trapped beneath embalming varnishes. In my earlier re-working of the Dutch masters, I was attempting to strip away the preserving wrapper to revivify them, substituting the scrupulously rendered representation of the original with the animation of scale, gesture and fluid paint. Subsequently I abandoned the Old Masters as a source of imagery. The paintings in this show are all based on my own photographs, but some of the old preoccupations remain: the enlargement of scale, the liquidity of paint applied with a broad brush, the splashing of solvent which breaks down the image while animating the surface - and the floral still life as a symbol of the passage of time. Poppies are a perfect subject, notoriously difficult to handle and keep, with their brief passage from tightly closed bud to full bloom to denuded pistil. Their fragile luminosity is both a perfect subject and a close analogy to the physicality of the paintings I am trying to make; glowing layers of flowing paint, thinly applied, splashed with solvent before they dry so that the paint hovers, tentative and insubstantial, like dew-drops on petals. The mossy branches of Untitled 20070202 are also testament to the passage of time – the knobbly accretions of the pollarded ends of old linden branches, where each year bright red new growths reshoot and are cut back. Paintings are frozen moments of time. They are a static visual record of a cumulative activity performed in time and space, four dimensions condensed into two. By constructing my paintings as transparently as possible, I seek to make the process transparent, so that every gesture remains visible. And as it is inherent in the nature of paint to dry, each layer is itself a little battle with time. I need to keep the whole colour layer wet to allow it to interact with the solvent I
splash onto it at the end of each painting session. Due to the vagaries of materials and climate, the drying time is always unpredictable. So I need to work fast, with big brushes and loosely approximate gestures that I hope will still evoke the subject in the final result. And the nature of my colour separation process means that flaws in my representation are only visible after the application of the third (cyan) colour layer - at that point I might realise that I have put too much yellow or magenta in the preceding layers, by now well-dried and beyond changing. My video, Bawley Point, also uses time, both as its subject, and as a key component of the process of its making. The film is shot at an estuary, with the reflections on its still surface disturbed and distorted by breezes, the occasional jumping fish, and by bubbles of gases rising up from the decomposing vegetation beneath. The three colour channels of red, green and blue have been slowed down to a quarter of their normal speed, and desynchronised - each running a few seconds later or earlier, which means we see every event, and hear every sound, three times. This in effect uses time as a prism to reveal the kaleidoscopic colour inherent in what was essentially black and white footage shot on a grey and cloudy day. Tim Maguire, March 2012
Untitled 94U39, 1994, oil on canvas, 200 x 400 cm, diptych. Collection: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Untitled 20120101, 2012 Oil on canvas 182 x 162 cm
Untitled 20120103, 2012 Oil on canvas 160 x 300 cm
Untitled 20111003, 2011 Oil on canvas 180 x 180 cm
Untitled 20120301, 2012 Oil on canvas 129 x 250 cm Following Pages: Untitled 20111002, 2011 Oil on canvas 182 x 404 cm, diptych
Untitled 20111101, 2011 Oil on canvas 180 x 160 cm Following Pages: Untitled 20120102, 2012 Oil on canvas 183 x 398 cm, diptych
Stills from Bawley Point, 2012 High definition video 10 minutes, edition of 5 + 1 AP Following Pages: Untitled 20070202, 2007 Oil on canvas 182 x 404 cm, diptych
Untitled 20120302, 2012 Oil on canvas 183 x 244 cm
1958 Born in Chertsey, United Kingdom 1959 Immigrated to Australia Lives and works in France and the United Kingdom since 1992 SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2000 - 2012 2012 2011 2011 2011 2011 2010 2010 2009 2009 2008 2008 2008 2008 2007 2007 2007 2007 2007 2006 2006 2006 2005 2005 2005 2004 2004
Time and Nature, Martin Browne Contemporary, Sydney Other Light, Galerie Andreas Binder, Munich Tim Maguire, Von Lintel Gallery, New York Light Fall 2011, Martin Browne Contemporary, Sydney Light Fall 2011, The Australian Club, Melbourne Light and Water, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne Light and Water, Martin Browne Fine Art, Sydney Refractions, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Light Fall, Von Lintel Gallery, New York Tim Maguire, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne Galerie Couvrat Desvergnes, Paris Refractions, Hewer Street Studios, London Snow, Water and Flowers, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham Galerie Andreas Binder, Munich New Digital Pigment Prints, Studio Franck Bordas, Paris Tim Maguire, Martin Browne Fine Art, Sydney Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne Von Lintel Gallery, New York Tim Maguire, Martin Browne Fine Art, Sydney Tim Maguire: Recent Paintings, Hewer Street Studios, London Digital Prints, Bathurst Fossil and Mineral Museum, NSW Unnatural, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne Tim Maguire, Von Lintel Gallery, New York Tim Maguire: New Paintings and Prints, Nick Allen London Galerie Urs Meile, Lucerne Hewer Street Studios, London
2004 2003 2003 2003 2003 2002 2002 2002 2002 2001 2001 2001 2001 2000 2000 2000
Tim Maguire: CMY, Martin Browne Fine Art, Sydney Tim Maguire: New Works, Galerie Andreas Binder, Munich Tim Maguire: Colour Separation Paintings, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria Tim Maguire: New Paintings, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne Tim Maguire: White Paintings, Martin Browne Fine Art, Sydney Tim Maguire, Mori Gallery, Sydney Tim Maguire, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne Art Fair Tim Maguire, Campbelltown City Art Gallery, New South Wales Tim Maguire, Hewer Street Studios, London New Paintings, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne Tim Maguire, John Curtin Gallery, Perth Tim Maguire, Galerie Urs Meile, Lucerne Tim Maguire, Mori Gallery, Sydney Tim Maguire: Schilderijen, Galerie Cokkie Snoei, Rotterdam Tim Maguire, Mori Gallery, Sydney Tim Maguire, Galerie Andreas Binder, Munich
SELECTED COLLECTIONS National Gallery of Australia, Canberra The British Museum, London Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart
Studio, Sydney 2012
© Martin Browne Contemporary © All images copyright Tim Maguire This catalogue is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. COMPILERS: Martin Browne and Electra Foley PHOTOGRAPHY: Jenni Carter COLOUR SEPARATIONS: Spitting Image, Sydney PRINTING: Southern Colour, Sydney Cover Image: Untitled 20120102, 2012, oil on canvas, 139 x 398 cm, diptych