MICHAEL KENNY RA Spirit and Matter
front cover: Form and Substance II 1991 137x183 cm
MICHAEL KENNY RA Spirit and Matter
MICHAEL KENNY RA ‘More loved than known’
If sculpture embodies the ‘perfect marriage between formal and symbolic meaning’ [Peter Davies], then this collection of Kenny’s drawings, paintings and sculptures goes further to expose, with subtle dexterity, the intricacies of this relationship. Originating in 1960’s Liverpool, and building prolifically over the next three decades, Kenny’s work arrives in Bath in 2012, as responsive to the city in materiality and form as in its metaphysical presence. The capacity for his sculpture to draw on and reinterpret its surroundings is characteristic of all his work, even now, in a posthumous retrospective. That this is where the wife of the late artist resides makes it all the more meaningful that this ancient heritage city is temporary home to his work.
‘The purpose is to integrate thought and action, spirit and matter, logic and intuition, male and female’. Kenny’s words ring true as you peruse this collection; each piece clean, geometric and ephemeral in quality, though varied in subject and style - quietly presents us with the paradox of objective logic juxtaposed with intuition. You could go as far as to claim that Kenny’s work captures an essence of both Roman and Georgian Bath, with its noble sense of order, architectural innovation, spatial organisation and persistent quest for a divine, elegant beauty. Kenny works with all these qualities, and elements of the ancient and sacred are as much imprinted on his work as are the symmetrical and rational facets of the Enlightenment. For him, science and mathematics bind his forms, while the human components of intellect and beauty bring them alive. In materiality too, an analogy with site can be drawn. Having experimented with abstract assemblage in the 1970’s and early 80’s, Kenny worked increasingly with limestone, Portland stone and Hornton stone to produce monumental architectural commissions before he returned to the figure as his subject in the 90’s. The corporeal stone forms by which he is perhaps best known present an isolated version of humanity, vulnerable in their solitude but magnificent in their solidity. In the collection seen here, the sculptures, though metallic, are models for stone, and the works on paper, stone-like in their hue, interspersed with rich and evocative splashes of colour. It is his teasing out of the
sensual, pale quality of this material that parallels the timelessness of Bath architecture. While every piece delineates its own rigid geometric structure, there is a common sensuality so tangible that it would seem to belong to a far more organic form. Kenny attributes this paradoxical quality to the Romans and the way they worked out logic - pointing to another connection with the city in which his work is now shown. The groups of figures he depicts in these works are imbued with both a classical antiquity and a religious sensibility, their form derived from Renaisance sculpture rather than from life. Despite this, a sense of the Modern pervades - the way he reconstructs parts to create new wholes are, by Kenny’s own admission, his attempt to reinterpret the classical from a twentieth century perspective. His figures and shapes are outlines against an infinite sky - unmodelled and unshaded, setting them apart from the detail of their historical source. They sit, in the centre of a stage, illuminated by a spotlight of rich colour, a sense of emptiness from their lost context. For Kenny, drawing is at the core of all his work - providing a ‘unifying thread’ and the means to abstract the world into the powerful symbolic imagery he has created. As influenced by Poussain, Giacometti and Medardo Rosso as by Picasso, Kandinsky and Jasper Johns, Kenny is a modernist artist who applies a postmodern pluralism to his work. He evades this categori-
sation however, much as he refuses the association of his prevalent religious symbolism with his own beliefs, allowing him to draw on ecclesiastical iconography with a free and liberal hand. The motifs he produces transcend these fixed meanings, allowing viewers to make their own interpretations, though at the same time we sense the artist’s intellect at work behind each of his structures. Kenny creates his own complete and contemplative worlds, each displaced but self-sufficient, with its own identity, form and meaning. At the same time, each responds to the other, conjoining to produce a quiet aura which fills the room. This is the harmonious dialogue of a perfect marriage, and this ancient yet modern city provides the ideal place for it to flourish. Sarah Jenkins, Asst Lecturer in Visual Culture, UWE
____________________________________________________________ ‘I cannot separate my thoughts, and the rest of my life from the activity of sculpture and drawing. Creativity for me has to be a synthesis of the material, emotional and spiritual- the integrity of a personality in making art’
SCULPTURE ‘Art can make a block of stone contain both thought and spirit’
above: Saint Genovefa above right: Meg-a below right: Gentle Whispers III
‘Art can make a block of stone contain both thought and spirit’
‘Stone, like love, can be permanent’
above: Von Huegel’s Dream right: Instruments of Passion
WORKS ON PAPER
‘I think of charcoal and paper as soft and solid - as smooth and layered’
Salto Mortale IV Mixed Media 1992
‘Drawing is a means of understanding, of searching for order out of chaos through images’
El Pasa de la Muerta
The Triumph of David
The Triumph of David VII
The Triumph of David XII
The Nurture of Jupiter IV 1993
Nurture of Jupiter I 162x126 cm
Idea and Form II 1994 160x120 cm
The Whip of Pride, Dante Purgatorio, Canto X 1996
Usurer, Dante Inferno, Canto XVII 166x144 cm
above: An Image Alone X 1999 above right: Ryoan-Ji VI 1997 right: Ryoan-Ji VII 1997
’The words of titles form indicationsprovocations-rather than descriptions’
Right Thinking I
photography by Jonathan Prime and Jon Roome
Quest Gallery
7 Margarets Buildings Bath BA1 2LP 01225 444142 www.questgallery.co.uk