Richard Nott 'Unearthed'

R I C H A R D

N OT T

U N E A RT H E D

Richard Nott’s paintings are built: they are made out of paint and resin and bitumen and various other substances fused together, gouged, scratched, compressed and even burnt. They are the result of a protracted physical process.

Many painters, for example Frank Auerbach or Leon Kossoff, make paintings incorporating layer after layer, those under-layers build to a final surface, giving us a sense of the struggle of achieving the image, of depiction. In comparison when we look at a work by Richard Nott, we cannot separate the final layer in the same way, not only because he has not sought to depict an obser ved phenomenon, but significantly because there is no distinction to be made between a final composition and what lies beneath: what we might call the image goes all the way through that slab of matter, like a honeycomb.

Nott’s form of ‘realness’, then, is nothing to do with those forms of realism that depend upon illusionistic painting, in fact it is nearer to its opposite. He is seeking to make work that exists as other objects exist, that has qualities of its own.

The range of qualities Nott achieves in his work are only appreciable when in front of the paintings: from the most delicate veining to chalky opacities, from liquid translucencies to calcified solidity, from rich browns which glow darkly to burnt blacks, ashen and dead. Nott must instigate the physical and chemical processes of existence, largely avoiding tell-tale physical or emotional signifiers of deliberation. Creating a form of expressivity through process rather than gesture. Except that the paintings do bear one ver y clear mark of the

deliberate: the ‘grid’. If, as is often the case, the grid is taken as symbolising the man-made, the logical, or the rational, then it has rarely been as precariously sited as in Nott’s paintings, cotinuously in danger of being overwhelmed.

Ar t critic and theorist Rosalind Krauss explored the ar tistic obsession with the grid in her essay ‘Grids’ and also in ‘The Originality of the Avant-Garde’: she traces the way in which the grid has managed to contain, or repress, two opposing impulses, one towards the material and the other towards the immaterial - the spiritual, to what lies beyond physical experience. The grid, in other words, has been used at various times to signify both the secular and the sacred and its ubiquity in the careers of twentieth and twenty-first century ar tists is possibly down to its ability to evoke both simultaneously: hence the drastically opposed readings of Piet Mondrian’s work, or Agnes Mar tin’s, or Ad Reinhardt’s.

Many of Nott’s titles bear this out: ‘Mar tyry I’’ becomes a Rothko-like revelation of spiritual space, a cur tain of darkness that par ts to reveal the physical world; and by way of an example: ‘Unear thed VI’ becomes a gateway, an immanent revelation.

These elements are so merged in all of these paintings, so inter-dependent, that we cannot separate the roles they play. Their interpretation, therefore, is as much a matter of where we, as viewers, situate ourselves in relation to that duality, to the material/ immaterial, to the secular / sacred, or to the real / depicted, as it is of Nott’s intentions or the paintings themselves.

Mike Walker, 2011

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M A RT Y RY I m i xe d m e d i a o n bl o c k p a n e l 178 x 247 cm

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M A RT Y RY I I m i xe d m e d i a o n bl o c k p a n e l 178 x 247 cm

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SANCTUM I m i xe d m e d i a o n bl o c k p a n e l 123 x 178 cm

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SANCTUM II m i xe d m e d i a o n bl o c k p a n e l 123 x 178 cm

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U N E A RT H E D I m i xe d m e d i a o n bl o c k p a n e l 123 x 123 cm

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U N E A RT H E D I I 14

m i xe d m e d i a o n bl o c k p a n e l . 1 2 3 x 1 2 3 c m

U N E A RT H E D I I I m i xe d m e d i a o n bl o c k p a n e l . 1 2 3 x 1 2 3 c m

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U N E A RT H E D I V 16

m i xe d m e d i a o n bl o c k p a n e l . 1 2 3 x 1 2 3 c m

U N E A RT H E D V m i xe d m e d i a o n bl o c k p a n e l . 1 2 3 x 1 2 3 c m

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U N E A RT H E D V I m i xe d m e d i a o n bl o c k p a n e l 123 x 123 cm

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U N E A RT H E D V I I m i xe d m e d i a o n bl o c k p a n e l 123 x 123 cm

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TA B L E T I 22

m i xe d m e d i a o n f l o a t e d p a n e l . 9 5 x 9 5 c m

TA B L E T I I m i xe d m e d i a o n f l o a t e d p a n e l . 9 5 x 9 5 c m

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TA B L E T I I I 24

m i xe d m e d i a o n f l o a t e d p a n e l . 9 5 x 9 5 c m

TA B L E T I V m i xe d m e d i a o n f l o a t e d p a n e l . 9 5 x 9 5 c m

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DERMIS I 26

m i xe d m e d i a o n f l o a t e d p a n e l . 6 1 x 6 1 c m

DERMIS II m i xe d m e d i a o n f l o a t e d p a n e l . 6 1 x 6 1 c m

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DERMIS III 28

m i xe d m e d i a o n f l o a t e d p a n e l . 6 1 x 6 1 c m

DERMIS IV m i xe d m e d i a o n f l o a t e d p a n e l . 6 1 x 6 1 c m

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DERMIS V 30

m i xe d m e d i a o n f l o a t e d p a n e l . 6 1 x 6 1 c m

DERMIS VI m i xe d m e d i a o n f l o a t e d p a n e l . 6 1 x 6 1 c m

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DERMIS VII 32

m i xe d m e d i a o n f l o a t e d p a n e l . 6 1 x 6 1 c m

DERMIS VIII m i xe d m e d i a o n f l o a t e d p a n e l . 6 1 x 6 1 c m

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DERMIS IX 34

m i xe d m e d i a o n f l o a t e d p a n e l . 6 1 x 6 1 c m

RELIC I

RELIC II

mixed media on block panel . 46 x 46 cm

mixed media on block panel . 46 x 46 cm

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RELIC III

RELIC IV

mixed media on block panel . 46 x 46 cm

mixed media on block panel . 46 x 46 cm

RELIC V

RELIC VI

mixed media on block panel . 46 x 46 cm

mixed media on block panel . 46 x 46 cm

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VESTIGE I

VESTIGE II

mixed media on floated panel . 42 x 42 cm

mixed media on floated panel . 42 x 42 cm

VESTIGE III

VESTIGE IV

mixed media on floated panel . 42 x 42 cm

mixed media on floated panel . 42 x 42 cm

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Richard Nott was born in Manchester 1964. He currently lives in St. Ives occupying one of the Por thmeor Studios EDUCATION / RESIDENCIES / AWARDS / PUBLICATIONS 1983-85 1985 1987-89 1994 1996 1999

2002 2003 2007

2008 2010 2012

B.A (Hons) Fine Ar t, Lancashire Polytechnic Assistant to Andy Goldswor thy MA Fine Ar ts, Reading University Southwest Ar ts, Visual Ar ts and Photography Award Drawing Towards the end of the Centur y, NSA Publications 12th International Weeks of Painting, Residency, Keleia Foundation, Slovenia Telekomovi Mednarodni Slikarski Tedni, Exhibition Catalogue ARTNSA, NSA Publications New Paintings, Exhibition Catalogue, New Millennium Galler y The St Ives School 1997 - 2007, Exhibition Catalouge Ar t Now Cornwall, Tate Publications Richard Nott, Exhibition Catalouge, New Millennium Galler y Cipher, Exhibition Catalogue, Millennium Unear thed, Exhibition Catalogue, Millennium

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2012 2010 2008 2006 2005 2003 2001

Unear thed, Millennium Cipher, Millennium Richard Nott, New Millennium Galler y, St. Ives, Cornwall Richard Nott, Dean Clough, Halifax, Yorkshire Platform, One’O’Two Galler y, London New Paintings, New Millennium Galler y, St. Ives, Cornwall Transition, Newlyn Ar t Galler y, Cornwall

SELECTED MIXED EXHIBITIONS 2009-2012 Mixed Winter Exhibition, Millennium 2007 Ar t Now Cornwall, St. Ives

The St Ives School, Howard Gardens Galler y, Cardiff 2002 Constructed, Newlyn Ar t Galler y 2001 Richard Nott, Sax Impey & Ged Quinn, Fermyn Woods Contemporar y Ar t 1998 Common Ground, Richard Nott & Sax Impey, Book Galler y, St. Ives 1997 Landmarks, Richard Nott, Sax Impey & Carole McDowall, Cafe Galler y, London 1996 Drawing Towards the End of the Centur y, Newlyn Ar t Galler y 1994 Richard Nott & Philip Smith, Alternative Ar t Galler y, London

New Ar t in the South West, Eight Selected Ar tists, Spacex Galler y, Exeter

Published by Millennium to coincide with the exhibition ‘Unearthed’ by Richard Nott All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publishers Publication produced by Impact Printing Services (www.impactprintingservices.co.uk) Photography by Graham Gaunt (www.grahamgaunt.com) Interview Film by Alban Roinard and Joseph Clarke

ISBN 978-1-905772-55-1

MILLENNIUM St reet-an-Pol St . Ives Cornwall 01736 793121 mail@millenniumgallery. c o . u k w w w. m i l l e n n i u m g a l l e r y. c o . u k