Jeremy Annear 2018 by Messums

ANNEAR

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R an d o m G e o m etry (O p ening), 2 017 oil on canvas 80 x 80 cms 311⁄2 x 311⁄2 ins

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E ntran c e E n -Tran c e , 2 018 oil on canvas 95 x 70 cms 37 3⁄8 x 27 1⁄2 ins

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S o l ar I I , 2 018 oil on canvas 150 x 120 cms 59 x 471⁄4 ins

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Tri partite , 2 018 oil on canvas 150 x 120 cms 59 x 471⁄4 ins

ANNEAR E X H I B I T I O N 2 018

www.messums.com 28 Cork Street, London W1S 3NGâ&#x20AC;&#x192; Telephone: +44 (0)20 7437 5545

J erem y A nnear Jeremy Annear is unquestionably a Modernist. It’s the way he has seen his art, and the way that others have described him through and through. Often, critical analysis has presented this Modernism as a sort of inheritance, for Annear has long been regarded as a dominant force of the generation of abstract painters following the St Ives heydays of the 1950s – heydays he saw himself and found magical as a holidaying teenager, being confronted by the mystical powers of abstraction on the streets of St Ives. Decades on, his own paintings – in all their unique handwriting and authorship – do indeed admit their lineage, at times tempting you into seeing echoes, of language or palette, of Braque, say, or Nicholson. But Annear, even more profoundly, is a Modernist by instinct, by philosophy. His elemental urge, his intellectual compulsion, has continually been to take off the top layer and to look underneath – to discard any surface version, and to search for a deeper, more elevating account. One can clearly align this impulse with a variety of notions of Modernism - with its reliance on a rejection of normal versions and visions, with its relevance to 20th century philosophical revolutions (with psychoanalysis, certainly), with many modern art initiatives. Most piercingly, this instinct to look beyond what is normally seen is surely a fundamental reason why an artist might be excited by the possibilities of abstraction. For Annear, the recognition of this was a striking moment in his art school education. One of his teachers at Exeter College of Art used to take reproductions of Renaissance paintings and construct scaffolds of lines upon them, describing the various forces and elements at play, resulting in purely abstracted versions of the original highly narrative or allegorical paintings, exploring their inner workings. It was, says Annear, ‘like looking underneath, thinking about what we know and then going deeper.’ Abstraction, for Annear, was going to be a way of searching more deeply, a way of finding more interesting truths than those displayed on the surface. There was philosophical logic then, behind the instinctive taste he had savoured as a teenager on the St Ives streets. The world that Annear has embraced with his work draws deeply from the natural forms and coastal landscape and historic layering of the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall, where he has made his home for the last 25 years. It’s a place of strong winds and hidden creeks, with the harsh Atlantic on one side, and safer havens on the other. He has gone further afield as well: Spain, Germany, Australia. Annear has responded to linear forms, stratifications, being particularly attracted to the edges of things, where energies, for him, seem magnified: at a cliff, for example, or shoreline. The colours of the coast, and the sea, have entered his work inexorably too. Unlike an artist with a sketchbook, Annear rarely observes or draws scenes in a direct way. Instead, his response to landscape is about what it makes him feel, how he responds in a physical or emotional or spiritual way. That is what ends up as being most important. (Again, it is the discarding of a usual version, for a deeper, more elevating account.) There is a place near his home, along a cliff edge, where the artist regularly walks, the site of a ruined mine shaft. As he approaches, he knows that walking past the site will

5 B o l aro, 2 018 oil on canvas 75 x 60 cms 291⁄2 x 235⁄8 ins

provide him with a particularly rich experience. In fact, he might walk past it several times, to focus on the experience – the act of walking, the bounce of the step, the eyes turned to the right. The whole fascinates, and is brought together into a kinetic observation of landscape, something far beyond the reach of a sketchbook. Another regular walk is up onto the Goonhilly Downs, which, as windswept moorland, is a bare expanse coloured uniformly in dull ochre. By investigating the plant life there, Annear has managed to photograph almost every colour of the spectrum. This has fascinated him as a task, that – quite wonderfully – has revealed there lies beneath the bland, another layer of extraordinary variety and sensation. How then are these paintings made, these abstract objects? The process is, for Annear, almost ritualistic – the procedure he has constructed is capable of capturing the unconscious flow of his hand, and to develop – through honed stages – objects that offer responses to the artist at different points, that mature to answer for themselves, to behave as surprising individuals. First the canvas is prepared with an earth ground. On this the artist makes his initial drawing. This is done with a stick or piece of chalk, sometimes with wet paint. At this stage, these actions are done in a detached, undeliberated way, like a dance, the movement being as material as the marks themselves. Then Annear the logician, the geometrist, will step up, connecting lines and points, pulling at the composition as though (and this is how he puts it) there’s a tune to be played. He admits to this being ‘an obsession of mine’. Crucially, Annear is always working in oil, and always working wet into wet, so the excitement of the process of making the painting is continually kept alive. (He cites the thrill of sliding one wet colour in next to another, without allowing it to merge – another example of his delighting in the edges of things, and the magnified energies that edges convey.) These paintings are seldom alone, and Annear may be working on anything up to 30 pieces at one time. The end of the day’s work for him is defined by the paintings reaching a certain stage of development (not fully finished – but resolved to a marked degree). One is reminded of the concept of the ‘giornata’ in Italian Renaissance fresco painting – the amount of work that could be done in a day, before the plaster dried. (With the Quattrocento being a favourite period of art for Annear, it’s not so surprising to find these formalising structures in his work, or such loaded echoes.) What does it feel like when he is painting – how does he direct his thoughts, to capture those nuances, to register such resonance? ‘I am dancing to the beat of the music’, he says. ‘When I start to paint, the silent music begins’. What a joy it must be to be in the midst of creating such beautiful objects. And what a treat it is for us to be able to experience the results of this remarkable and life-long exploration. Sandy Mallet Author and art historian

6 S o l ar I , 2 018 oil on canvas 150 x 120 cms 59 x 471⁄4 ins

I d eas V I I , 2 018

I d eas V I , 2 018

I d eas I V, 2 018

oil on canvas 30 x 25 cms 117⁄8 x 97⁄8 ins

I d eas I X , 2 018

I d eas V, 2 018

I d eas I , 2 018

oil on canvas 31 x 25 cms 12 x 97⁄8 ins

oil on canvas 30 x 25 cms 117⁄8 x 97⁄8 ins

I d eas X , 2 018

I d eas I I I , 2 018

I d eas I I , 2 018

oil on canvas 30 x 25 cms 117⁄8 x 97⁄8 ins

16 S o f to ne , 2 018 oil on canvas 75 x 60 cms 291⁄2 x 235⁄8 ins

17 R es o nan c e I , 2 018 oil on canvas 80 x 30 cms 311⁄2 x 113⁄4 ins

18 R es o nan c e I I , 2 018 oil on canvas 80 x 30 cms 311⁄2 x 113⁄4 ins

19 A n da lu c ia I , 2 017 oil on board 40 x 30 cms 153⁄4 x 113⁄4 ins

20 A n da lu c ia I I , 2 018 oil on board 40 x 30 cms 153⁄4 x 113⁄4 ins

21 A n da lu c ia I I I , 2 018 oil on board 40 x 30 cms 153⁄4 x 113⁄4 ins

2 2 Pa l i m p sest I , 2 017 oil on primed card 45 x 23 cms 17 3⁄4 x 87⁄8 ins

23 Pa l i m p sest I I , 2 017 oil on primed card 45 x 22 cms 17 3⁄4 x 85⁄8 ins

24 Pa l i m p sest I I I , 2 017 oil on primed card 45 x 22 cms 17 3⁄4 x 85⁄8 ins

25 Pa l i m p sest I V, 2 017 oil on primed card 45 x 22 cms 17 3⁄4 x 85⁄8 ins

26 E n f o l d e d, 2 018 oil on canvas 75 x 60 cms 291⁄2 x 235⁄8 ins

27 Cro ss F low I , 2 018 oil on canvas 75 x 60 cms 291⁄2 x 235⁄8 ins

28 Cro ss F low I I , 2 018 oil on canvas 60 x 60 cms 235⁄8 x 235⁄8 ins

29 A n da lu c ia H o l d ing I , 2 017 oil on board 20 x 30 cms 7 7⁄8 x 113⁄4 ins

30 A n da lu c ia H o l d ing I I , 2 017 oil on board 24 x 30 cms 91⁄2 x 113⁄4 ins

31 A n da lu c ia S o l ar I I I , 2 017 oil on board 20 x 30 cms 7 7⁄8 x 113⁄4 ins

32 A n da lu c ia Tri partite , 2 017 oil on board 20 x 30 cms 7 7⁄8 x 113⁄4 ins

33 T u rning P o int I , 2 018 oil on canvas 122 x 92 cms 48 x 361â &#x201E;4 ins

34 T u rning P o int I I , 2 018 oil on canvas 120 x 100 cms 471⁄4 x 393⁄8 ins

35 T u rning P o int I I I , 2 018 oil on canvas 120 x 100 cms 471⁄4 x 393⁄8 ins

36 T u rning P o int I V, 2 018 oil on canvas 120 x 100 cms 471⁄4 x 393⁄8 ins

37 T u rning P o int V, 2 018 oil on canvas 120 x 100 cms 471⁄4 x 393⁄8 ins

38 T u rning P o int V I , 2 018 oil on canvas 122 x 93 cms 48 x 363â &#x201E;8 ins

39 T u rning P o int V I I , 2 018 oil on canvas 100 x 80 cms 393⁄8 x 311⁄2 ins

40 T u rning P o int V I I I , 2 018 oil on canvas 80 x 80 cms 311⁄2 x 311⁄2 ins

41 T u rning P o int I X , 2 018 oil on canvas 80 x 80 cms 311⁄2 x 311⁄2 ins

42 T u rning P o int X , 2 018 oil on canvas 80 x 80 cms 311⁄2 x 311⁄2 ins

43 T u rning P o int X I , 2 018 oil on canvas 122 x 92 cms 48 x 361â &#x201E;4 ins

44 I vo ry M o o n I , 2 018 oil on canvas 75 x 60 cms 291⁄2 x 235⁄8 ins

45 I vo ry M o o n I I , 2 018 oil on canvas 51 x 41 cms 197â &#x201E;8 x 16 ins

46 H eart I , 2 018 oil on canvas 75 x 60 cms 291⁄2 x 235⁄8 ins

47 H eart I I , 2 018 oil on canvas 60 x 60 cms 235⁄8 x 235⁄8 ins

48 E cc entri c A xis , 2 018 oil on canvas 60 x 60 cms 235⁄8 x 235⁄8 ins

49 Lu nar , 2 018 oil on canvas 60 x 40 cms 235⁄8 x 153⁄4 ins

50 A eria l , 2 018 oil on canvas 60 x 40 cms 235⁄8 x 153⁄4 ins

51 R an d o m F o r m s , 2 018 oil on canvas 75 x 60 cms 291⁄2 x 235⁄8 ins

BIOGR APHY Jeremy Annear (b. 1949) is an abstract painter who was born in Devon and has since moved westwards into Cornwall. There he lives in a converted chapel on the Lizard Peninsular with his wife, the painter Judy Buxton. Represented by Messum’s, Cork Street, London Biographical history 1966-69 Exeter College of Art, Painting and Printmaking. 1973-76 Rolle College, Exmouth, Devon (B Ed). 1976-84 Assistant Director, Dyrons Art Centre, Devon. 1982-84 Lecturer, South Devon College. 1984-86 Director, Ryder’s Gallery, Dartington College of Art, Devon. 1988 Member of the Penwith Society of Artists. 1989 Member of the Newlyn Society of Artists. 1993 Elected on to the Council of Management, Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall. 1993 Elected Committee Member, Newlyn Society of Artists. 1997/98 Visiting lecturer, Cheltenham College of Art. 2015 Became a represented artist on ideelart a virtual online organisation promoting Abstract and conceptual art worldwide (www.ideelart.com) 2018 IMS honoured Jeremy Annear by setting up a Young Musicians Bursary named: THE JEREMY ANNEAR BURSARY. This was awarded for the first time in 2018 to the talented French Violinist Irene Duval, and will be awarded annually to a musician attending the annual spring seminars Solo exhibitions 2018 Messum’s, London 2016 Messum’s, London 2015 Lemon Street Gallery, Truro ‘Two-fold’ with Judy Buxton 2014 Campden Gallery 2013 Messum’s, London New Craftsman St Ives with JudyBuxton and Terence Coventry 2012 Campden Gallery 2011 Messum’s, London 2010 Campden Gallery 2009 Messum’s, London 2007 New Millennium Gallery, St Ives, Cornwall. 2004 New Millennium Gallery, St Ives, Cornwall. 2002 Messum’s, London 2001 New Millennium Gallery, St Ives, Cornwall. 2000 Messum’s, London 1998 Messum’s, London New Millennium Gallery, St Ives, Cornwall. 1997 Messum’s, London Artco Gallery, Leipzig, Germany. 1993 Porthmeor Gallery, St Ives, Cornwall. 1992 International Celtic Festival, Lorient, France. Galerie Passage, Berlin, Germany. 1991 Galerie Maeder, Berlin, Germany. Galerie Altes Rathaus (with Margaret Kelly/Wolfgang Lehmann). Galerie Haus Martin, Bremen, Germany. 1989 The Salthouse Gallery, St Ives, Cornwall. The Underground Gallery, Bath. Selected group exhibitions 2004 NumerousGroup and Mixed exhibitions since 2005 2004 New Millennium Gallery, St Ives, Cornwall, winter 2003/4 and ART2004 Islington Business Design Centre. 2003-1998 ‘ART 2003’, David Messum Gallery, Business Design Centre, Islington, London. 2002 ‘Art & Spirituality’, Truro Cathedral, Cornwall. 2002-1996 ‘Kunst uit Cornwall’, Amersfoort, Reina de Weyer, Holland. 2002/01/00/99 Wenlock Fine Art, Much Wenlock, Shropshire. 2000 ‘Twenty Years of Contemporary Art’, Falmouth Museum and Art Gallery. 1999 ‘The Next Generation of Cornish painters’, Jeremy Annear and Kurt Jackson, David Messum Gallery, London. 1999 ‘Aspects of Abstraction’, Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall. ‘Cornish Painting’, The City Gallery, London. ‘Cornish Art in the Nineties’ Beatrice Royal Gallery, Eastleigh. 1999/98 Innocent Fine Art, Bristol. ‘The British Show Truro’, Lemon St Gallery, Truro, Cornwall. 1998 ‘5 Leipziger Jahresausstellung 1998’ Leipzig, Germany. ‘Panel Paintings’, Rosanna Wilson, Stephens Fine Art, London. ‘Newlyn Now’, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol. 1998/97/96 ‘Now and Then’, David Messum Gallery, London. 1998/97 London Olympia Art Fair. ‘The Little Picture Show’, The Rainy Day Gallery, Penzance. 1997 ‘Limelight II’, Newlyn Art Gallery, Newlyn. ‘Quality of Light’, St Ives Tate Peninsular Programme, Open Studio.

1997/96 1995 1994 1994/93 1993

Cadogan Contemporaries, London. ‘Critic’s Choice’, (Sasha Craddock), Newlyn Art Gallery. Online Gallery, Southampton. Galerie Plein 1, Zeist, Holland. ‘G12’, Amersfoort, Holland. Demarco’s European Art Foundation, The Edinburgh Festival. ‘G12’, Salthouse Gallery, St Ives. ‘Summer Exhibition’, The Royal Academy of Arts, London. ‘Demarco’s Choice’, Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall. Newlyn Fish Festival, guest artist with Ralph Freeman, Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall. 1992 ‘Crossing the Boundaries’ Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro, (4 Cornish Artists in Europe). 1992/91/90 Bath Contemporary Art Fair, Ogle Fine Art. 1992/91/90 Contemporary Art Fair, Business Design Centre, Islington, London, Ogle Fine Art. 1990 ‘Art London 90’, 5th International Art Fair. ‘Six Porthleven Painters’, The Porthmeor Gallery, St Ives. 1989 ‘St Ives 89’, New Street Gallery, Plymouth. ‘From Cornwall’, The Park Gallery, Cheltenham College. 1989-1998 Newlyn Art Gallery, Newlyn. 1998-1992 ‘The Penwith Society of Artists, Penwith Gallery, St Ives. 1986 Louise Hallett and Vanessa Deveraux, London. Louise Hallett Gallery, London.

Publications, awards etc 2017 Courpus Letov, online arts and culture magazine. ‘Jeremy Annear Modernism and the Projection of Being’ by author Ilya Levitov (president of the Russian Chess Association). 2014 Exhibition Catalogue Campden Gallery. Catalogue Essay ‘The Anxious Object’ Graham Boyd. ISBN:978-1-908753-23-6 2013 Exhibition Catalogue. New Craftsman St Ives. Catalogue Essay ‘Jeremy Annear’ Mercedes Smith. ISBN: 978-0-9926590-2-8 2013 Exhibition Catalogue. Messum’s London. Catalogue Essay ‘Encounters with Beauty’ by Andrew Lambirth. ISBN: 978-1-908486-37-0. Publication No: CCCXLV 2012 Exhibition Catalogue. Campden Gallery. Catalogue Essay ‘A Kind of Music’ Ian Collins. Art Writer and Curator. ISBN: 978-1-908753-07-6 2011 Exhibition Catalogue. Messum’s London. Catalogue essay ‘the Eye of the Spirit’ by Andrew Lambirth, Writer Critic and Curator. ISBN: 978-1-90588393-6. Publication No: CCCI 2010 Exhibition Catalogue. Campden Gallery. Catalogue Essay ‘Forensic Traces’ by Andrew Lambirth. ISBN: 978-0-9562719-4-5 2009 Exhibition Catalogue. Messum’s London. Forward by Nicholas Usherwood. Catalogue essay ‘Silent Harmonies’ Dr Jane Hamilton. ISBN: 978-1-90588344-8. Publication No:CCXLXII 2007 Exhibition catalogue, New Millennium Gallery (foreword by David Falconer). 2006/7 Interview ‘Jeremy Annear on European Modernism and Cornish Art in the Eighties’, www.artcornwall.org 2004 Exhibition catalogue, New Millennium Gallery (foreword by James Aitchison and ‘The Meeting’, a poem written for the catalogue by Robert Vas Dias). Catching the Wave: Contemporary Art and Artists in Cornwall by Tom Cross (Published by Halsgrove 2002). 2002 Exhibition catalogue, ‘New Works’, Messum’s Contemporary. 2001 Galleries Review, ‘Showing in St Ives’, Petronilla Silver. 2000 Exhibition catalogue (foreword by Norbert Lynton), Messum’s Contemporary. 1998/97 Exhibition catalogue, David Messum Gallery (foreword by John RusselTaylor). 1996 Drawing Towards the End of the Century, Newlyn Society of Artists Publication. 1994 St Ives Revisited – Innovators and Followers, by Peter Davis (Bakehouse Publications). 1991 Award Kreissparkasse, Bremen, Germany. 1991/92 DAAD Scholarship, (Atelierhaus Worpswede), Germany. 1991/92 Atelierhaus Worpswede (Worpswede Verlag). Projects 2013, 2018 Co-ordinator and Curator of IMS Charity Auction at Sotheby’s London with Exhibitions at Falmouth Museum and Art Gallery and at Sotheby’s South Kensington London 2005-2007 Continuing studio-based collaboration with composer Jim Aitcheson. 2003-2005 Artsound.co.uk A collaboration with composer Jim Aitcheson, Coleridge Productions Andy Russo, The Coull Quartet and The Secconi Quartet. Collections Lazard Bros. Ionian Trust. The Royal Holloway Collection. The Royal West of England Academy. Listed in Who’s Who in British Art and The Dictionary of Artists in Britain since 1945

CDXLIII ISBN 978-1-910993-35-4 Publication No: CDXLIII Published by David Messum Fine Art ÂŠ David Messum Fine Art All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Studio, Lords Wood, Marlow, Buckinghamshire. Tel: 01628 486565 www.messums.com Photography: Steve Russell â&#x20AC;&#x192;Printed by DLM-Creative