PAUL EMSLEY
PAUL EMSLEY
PAUL EMSLEY NEW WORK FLOWERS PORTRAITS – HEADS FACES OF LONDON ADDENDUM DRAWINGS
20 Cork Street London W1S 3HL T +44 (0)20 7734 1732
redfern-gallery.com
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Johann Louw 2015 acrylic on paper 41 × 32 cm (detail)
ON THE EDGE OF THE ABYSS Charlotte Mullins This is your first solo exhibition for over four years, since your portrait of Catherine Middleton, The Duchess of Cambridge, was unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery in London on 11 January 2013. Why is this?
and consideration have no place. In such a climate the idea that perhaps people ought to view the actual portrait before responding held no currency at all. I understand that some may feel it is not my strongest portrait. However I think most artists will agree that when the subject is a beautiful young woman rather than an old man it is not easy to bring depth and gravitas to it.
Paul Emsley I suppose it was inevitable after such an experience that a period of reflection was required. I had been working for many years in a direction in which I believed and which had brought a degree of recognition and success. Now for the first time I had to examine whether or not I had been mistaken. I have always been able to work in various ways and after the commission I began to experiment more widely again. This is why it has taken so long. I did not want to discard the technically demanding representationally correct work I had been doing but I felt the need to see to what extent I could answer the questions that had arisen in my mind as a result of the criticism.
CM With the benefit of hindsight, would you take on the commission again? PE The process from beginning to end was interesting and informative. It was a challenging commission with a clearly defined brief. Many artists would probably wish to have such an opportunity. However the critical response was certainly destructive. Artists have to regularly cope with disappointment whether in the privacy of the studio or the exposed experience of exhibiting one’s work. You learn to expect it and work through it. If it is your chosen way of life the private pleasures of the studio outweigh the noises from afar. In short, I have a thicker skin now and I would know what to expect.
CM I felt that most of the criticism came from people who had not experienced the work for themselves, had not stood in front of it.
CM Is this new show in any way a riposte to the attention you received in January 2013?
PE Yes, on the day of the unveiling it became clear that the hysteria around the portrait was largely based on reactions to an image on a smartphone or a computer. Anyone who has seen the portrait will know that it is based on tonal subtleties. Much of this was lost in the digital image. This, together with the perhaps predictable responses of the critics, meant that a negative atmosphere prevailed immediately. Apparently this was the first such unveiling in the age of social media. It became clear throughout the day that it was not about the experience of actually looking at the portrait but a confluence of interests, attitudes and agendas that reflect the unfortunate side of the internet where objectivity
PE Yes it is. I have used the intervening years to examine my working practices thoroughly and new directions have emerged. I hope to show that I’m not just about highly detailed portraits and flowers although I still believe in those and will continue to do them but now as part of a wider range of concerns. CM In this exhibition you are presenting four new series: ‘Flowers’, ‘Portraits – Heads’, ‘Faces of London’ and ‘Addendum
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Romanticism 2015 black chalk and pencil on paper 40 × 52 cm (detail)
Drawings’. The realism of the ‘Flowers’ series is incredible – this feels like familiar ground for you, the level of detail, the black and white sfumato … How long does each take to complete?
and shapes that interest me. I also take many photographs of the finer details such as single flowers or leaves. I then draw the general shapes onto the paper or canvas and start work, usually from left to right. I use the photos as a source of information but I’m not held captive by them. I often change things or invent a leaf or flower if the picture requires it.
PE I usually need four to six weeks to complete each one. The actual physical work is strenuous so there is a limit to what can be done each day. There are also intervals of consideration required to allow the ‘secret’ of the work to be heard. By this I mean a careful balance of tone and form, a visual articulation of stillness. The sense of completeness that I hope for, a sort of settled half-light, requires time and usually doesn’t appear until the very last moment. The process is frustrating and I often resent the image intensely until that final point. People often ask why I make these time consuming drawings and paintings when I might just as well take a photograph. I don’t mind this. Careful study of the flower pieces will reveal subtleties of shape, tone and texture that are different to a photograph. The distinction is small but vast at the same time. We are in a period where attitudes towards disciplined technique are largely negative. Many art schools teach that technique is a hindrance to creativity. This is a large and complex subject but suffice to say that my decision to work with elaborate detail was because I felt that most of what I was seeing in contemporary art looked very much the same and didn’t seem terribly difficult. I was hoping to do something that didn’t depend upon trends or fashions for its validation.
CM Do you think of these as Vanitas? PE Yes I do. Although flowers may appear sentimental or beautiful at first glance they are always on the edge of the abyss. Like us they age, wither and die. Life and death in a vase of flowers. CM Was this the reason for adding Ingres’ Grande Odalisque on one of the vases? That beauty – whether in a flower or a person – always fades? PE The title of that drawing is Romanticism which alludes to Ingres’s move from Neoclassicism. I was hoping to add a layer of meaning to the flower pieces. The figure’s elongated shape seemed appropriate to the forms of the roses in some way that I can’t express in words. Perhaps that’s why I make pictures, you think in a way that cannot always be articulated. Things just seem right and exciting somewhere in the back of your imagination. CM I wondered if you had added the Grande Odalisque because it was largely vilified when it was first exhibited in 1814, attacked for its lack of anatomical accuracy, particularly that exceptionally long back. Did you feel this offered a parallel to your own experience of critical skewering when your painting of The Duchess of Cambridge was unveiled?
CM You use photographs for the preparatory stages of your work though? PE I spend a lot of time finding the right flowers and setting up the still life in the studio. I then photograph it moving the flowers, leaves and lighting around until I find the composition
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Faces of London [No.1] 2017 chalk on paper 34 × 37 cm (detail)
CM You won the BP Portrait Award in 2007, yet at the time you were not known for being a portrait painter. Given you have a natural affinity with capturing the spirit and physiognomy of people, I am interested to know why you did not follow the route of portraiture as a primary focus?
PE That’s very interesting. When I did that portrait I must admit Ingres was somewhere in my mind. I’ve always admired him although I understand that his highly finished style is out of favour these days. I like the feeling of quiet contemplation in his work. It stands up to extended scrutiny over time. When I did the flower drawing I did not intend to make such a statement but it may have occurred subliminally.
PE There are some people who have the innate ability to achieve a ‘likeness’ effortlessly. It’s a remarkable skill and I admire them for it. I’m not sure that I have that. Because I’m always dissatisfied with the work in progress I’m constantly pushing to give it more depth. I think in striving for this an easy likeness eludes me. Perhaps this may be why many people found the portrait of the Duchess of Cambridge too ‘dark’. I’m just not the sort of artist to produce something light and cheerful. If I’m perfectly frank a portrait commission is one of the most difficult things for me to do. I will certainly continue to do them but as a part of the broader range of my work.
CM There are a number of portraits in this exhibition. You call the series ‘Portraits – Heads’. This title is more complex than it seems, for it is contradictory. A portrait is specific, of a particular person, and yet a ‘head’ is generic and largely anonymous. Why the conflicting title? PE I mean that the ‘portraits’ are of particular subjects such as Nelson Mandela, Geoffrey Palmer, Willem Boshoff and my mother. The others are of various acquaintances or colleagues. These I would call ‘heads’ and I’ve chosen them only because I find them visually intriguing. There are enormous varieties of head shapes. Each one is a visual record of a life and an avenue to their ancestors. Particular facial shapes, textures and forms are an echo from the past, sometimes from the very distant past and thrown up from the history of our genes. The head is a very strange object and although these works are representative and quite detailed I hope to show something of this. There are some drawings in the series but they are mostly paintings made largely by applying the paint with credit cards. This allows me to have a broader approach, sometimes pushing, pressing or sliding the paint. An eye that has the required anatomical structure but with the sense that it has more than one ‘moment’, that it is slipping slightly, might be more powerful than if it were simply ‘correct’.
CM Many of the portraits in this exhibition do not seem as polished as that of the Duchess of Cambridge. They are sympathetic yet limpid studies of ageing and humanity. Was this a conscious decision? PE Although I sometimes need to do a portrait in a highly finished style I’m much happier working with greater freedom and depth. Most of these were done for my own reasons. Looking back I think I may have moved too far along the way of highly detailed and polished paintings. Perhaps I hope to show with these that I have moved on. CM In the portrait of Johann Louw the left eye is mesmerizing, full of luminosity yet capturing a wistfulness, a sense that the
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Addendum Drawing [No.3] 2017 chalk on paper 84 × 59 cm (detail)
man is looking both into the distance and into himself. Do you want these portraits to convey an inner life as well as an outer fidelity?
CM There are other figures in the exhibition, notably in ‘Faces of London’. This series feels like a new departure in your work. How did it come about?
PE Johann Louw is an artist in South Africa. He is an exstudent of Stellenbosch University where I used to teach. He was always an intriguing and highly unusual figure. He has an interesting face in any case but this is heightened by the light falling behind the iris, which disfigures it. You see this sometimes when someone turns their head in a certain way. It’s a disturbing glimpse behind our usual perceptions of people. I’m trying to maintain the structure of drawing that remains vital to me while at the same time allowing my usual concerns of life and death to be present.
PE This is an important series for me. It was the route that led me eventually to the ‘Addendum Drawings’. I had reached a point where I wanted to extend my concerns beyond the highly finished works of the past few decades. In earlier years I had worked quite loosely and I felt the need to investigate that direction again. Because I find heads visually intriguing I thought it might be interesting to do a series of drawings which were not related to portrait commissions. The first ones were more detailed but they became looser as my confidence grew.
CM Looking at these portraits led me to wonder which historical paintings you admire the most. There is something of Vermeer’s light, Ingres’ finesse and Rembrandt’s depth in these.
CM Are they people you know? PE There were one or two friends to begin with but soon I began to ask people I saw in the street if they would allow me to photograph them for a drawing. It’s not easy to approach someone in the street, especially as I am reticent by nature. Quite often I would follow someone for a while until I was certain that their face warranted the risk of approaching them. Sometimes they were unwilling for various reasons but generally people seemed pleased. It was interesting to see how most expressions softened after initial suspicion. I must also acknowledge the help of friends and colleagues who helped to find the sort of faces they knew I was looking for.
PE You are correct, these artists have all been important to me. Probably my greatest influence though is Velázquez. The sense of completely convincing forms described by marks and strokes so fluid and delicate they could almost be blown away. There is the sense of another reality adjacent to the one he is describing. You could add Degas, Hals, Goya and Titian to the group. When I was young in South Africa I spent years in close study of any books on their work that I could find. How can one explain their always completely convincing descriptions of the complexities of the human form in every mark they made while at the same time conveying powerful truths about the worlds they lived in?
CM London is a vast, diverse metropolis. How did you select who would comprise the series?
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PE As the series of heads developed I began a separate series of figure drawings of people I had photographed at airports and stations. Over time the two groups merged into the ‘Faces of London’ series. I’m often struck by the extraordinary range of faces in London, reflecting the city’s diversity.
CM There is something of the German expressionists in these, and the dark psychological content of Anselm Kiefer. They also bring to mind the late print series of Goya and Rembrandt, where darkness threatens to subsume each image. Were there particular artists you had in mind when you allowed your work to develop in this way?
CM You have said before that there is a great deal of pressure on contemporary artists to work loosely but that you have always enjoyed trying to make a case for disciplined observation. However, in this exhibition we see a new side to you in a dark and expressive body of work called ‘Addendum Drawings’. How did you make the leap to creating these?
PE Yes, that’s true. I’ve always related to a broader German Expressionism, from Käthe Kollwitz to Max Beckmann to Anselm Kiefer to Gerhard Richter. I find a similar spirit in the work of Francis Bacon and as you say Goya and Rembrandt as well as others of course. It’s a dark spirit on the edge of objective reality and only revealed by an alternative coherent form.
PE Over the past few years I have felt the stirrings of a different kind of energy. Although I fully intend to continue the highly detailed flowers and portraits I wanted to broaden my concerns to investigate this new direction as well. CM These drawings took me by surprise, the first time I saw them. While the ‘Faces of London’ series show a loosening of style, they still depict discrete figures, recognizable forms. In ‘Addendum Drawings’ the figures meld with the dense charcoal grounds, almost disappearing entirely in some instances. It is as if you have left the visible world behind – these seem to come wholly from within.
CM In the past you have talked about adding mystery to your work, once a formal likeness is achieved. With the ‘Addendum Drawings’ would you say you are starting from a point of mystery and seeing where the work takes you, rather than trying to add it in at the end? PE I explore a drawing for a while then rub all or most of it out. The traces that are inevitably left behind become points of suggestion for the subsequent layer of drawing. This in turn is wholly or partially rubbed out and so the drawing develops. I have no preconceived idea of what form it will take. I have an empty mind. I’m led by the suggestions of left-behind marks and textures. As the drawing grows the confusions and frustrations I have about our world begin to insinuate themselves into coherent forms. The drawings involve much worry and thought but once a thread begins to develop it becomes an animating and transfiguring experience.
PE That’s correct, they have no relation to the objective world of my other work and yet I think there is a connection to the darker spirit behind their surface beauty. I ask myself whether these new drawings would have been possible without the years of observational work behind me. I’m not sure I can answer that yet. Although I deliberately free myself completely when making them I have the sense of an underlying framework of experience.
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CM For all their expressive near-abstraction, they are still rooted in the figure. Alone or in small groups, naked, questioning their place in the world through the use of telescopes, sextants, books, a globe, all under apocalyptic skies. If these come from within you, do they also depict aspects of you?
whose work does not look remotely the same throughout. I like that idea and I hope to have the space to work further in the various directions that are outlined in this exhibition.
PE The tools of our minds and senses are the inadequate means we have to understand where, who, what and why we are. Because we are in a sense ‘blind’ we live beyond our ability to know, literally beyond our means. We are held in an infinitely fine balance between gravity, our bones, our stomachs and all the pulses of the universe. In the face of this we have the written word, globes, maps, sextants, theodolites, mathematics, philosophy, religion and the arts as our instruments of speculation and navigation. Perhaps this may be why we repeat the same mistakes through the ages. The world has always been and will always be a jungle. We imagine we progress but a glance at our world and the behaviour of our species holds no hope of that for me.
PE I ask myself why I’ve made these drawings now. The fact is that something has been loosened in me. I think it may have been caused by a number of things. Certainly the furore over the Duchess of Cambridge portrait has had personal consequences. Also my move to the Isle of Wight, which is a sort of mental island for me as well. Having a new studio has triggered something. Then there is the fact of getting older and an awareness of a finite number of working years ahead.
CM Do you feel this series offers critics of the Duchess of Cambridge portrait a different side to you?
CM So the ‘Addendum Drawings’ show a new direction for the future? PE I do feel an excitement at the prospect of uncovering this new area that feels charged and unknown. I’ve asked myself what will happen if these drawings are negatively received, which is entirely possible of course. Would I continue with them under such circumstances? I hope that the actual experience of making them will be enough to keep going. In the isolation of my studio and in the middle of making a drawing there is a wonderful feeling of being entirely removed from the world with all its troubles, falsities and confusions. It’s a seductive place to be and perhaps the more so for being held back until now.
CM For people who know your highly skilled photorealist flower paintings, or nuanced portraits, how do you think they will react to these? PE I’m aware of the fact that some will be confused by these drawings. If highly detailed work was the only thing I could do then of course I would stick to that exclusively. I will naturally continue in that direction because I love doing them and I find the slow deliberate process calming. However I have always had another side to me that I have held in abeyance until now. I understand that some may see this as a risk but to me it is merely an extension of my field of work. The spirit is the same but manifested in a different form. There are many artists
March 2017
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Flowers
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Triptych 2015 black chalk and pencil on paper 92 Ă— 106.3 cm
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The Far Side 2015 black chalk and pencil on paper 48 Ă— 49.5 cm
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Providence 2016 acrylic on conservation board 67 Ă— 75.5 cm
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Romarin 2014 black chalk and pencil on paper 23.5 Ă— 31 cm
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Sea of Serenity 2017 acrylic on conservation board 66 × 75 cm
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Heralds 2016 acrylic on conservation board 17.5 Ă— 23 cm
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Romanticism 2015 black chalk and pencil on paper 40 Ă— 52 cm
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Terracotta 2016 acrylic on conservation board 18.5 Ă— 23.3 cm
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The Prophet’s Tree 2016 black chalk and pencil on paper 48 × 59.5 cm
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The China Garden 2016 black chalk and pencil on paper 39 Ă— 39.5 cm
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Glacier 2016 black chalk and pencil on paper 39 Ă— 49.5 cm
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Asia 2015 black chalk and pencil on paper 18.3 Ă— 19.5 cm
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Stone 2016 acrylic on paper 27 × 29 cm
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Portraits – Heads
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Nelson Mandela 2015 acrylic on paper 91 Ă— 86 cm
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Willem Boshoff 2017 black chalk on paper 101 × 113 cm
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Mom 2017 acrylic on paper 91 × 82 cm
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Geoffrey Palmer 2017 black chalk on paper 79 × 71 cm
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Alan Peacock 2016 acrylic on conservation board 35 × 31 cm
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Colin Litherland [The Framer] 2015 acrylic on canvas 31 × 27 cm
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Johann Louw 2015 acrylic on paper 41 × 32 cm
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William Boyd 2016 acrylic on conservation board 16 × 16.5 cm
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Dorothy 2015 acrylic on paper 22 × 15 cm
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Faces of London
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Faces of London [No.1] 2017 chalk on paper 34 Ă— 37 cm
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Faces of London [No.2] 2017 chalk on paper 34 Ă— 36.5 cm
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Faces of London [No.3] 2017 chalk on paper 38 Ă— 31.5 cm
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Faces of London [No.4] 2017 chalk on paper 48 Ă— 36.5 cm
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Faces of London [No.5] 2016 chalk on paper 50 Ă— 34 cm
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Faces of London [No.6] 2016 chalk on paper 57 Ă— 47 cm
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Faces of London [No.7] 2015 chalk on paper 34 Ă— 34 cm
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Faces of London [No.8] 2016
Faces of London [No.9] 2016
chalk on paper
chalk on paper
39 × 28 cm
40 × 31 cm
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Faces of London [No.10] 2017
Faces of London [No.11] 2016
chalk on paper
chalk on paper
30.5 × 20.5 cm
39 × 25 cm
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Faces of London [No.12] 2017 chalk on paper 42 Ă— 44 cm
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Faces of London [No.13] 2017 chalk on paper 37 Ă— 33.5 cm
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Faces of London [No.14] 2015 chalk on paper 35.5 Ă— 33.5 cm
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Faces of London [No.15] 2016 chalk on paper 44 Ă— 24 cm
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Faces of London [No.16] 2016 chalk on paper 56 Ă— 30 cm
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Faces of London [No.17] 2016 chalk on paper 36.5 Ă— 34 cm
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Faces of London [No.18] 2017 chalk on paper 38 Ă— 33 cm
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Faces of London [No.19] 2016 chalk on paper 22 Ă— 25 cm
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Faces of London [No.20] 2017 chalk on paper 43 Ă— 38 cm
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Faces of London [No.21] 2017
Faces of London [No.22] 2015
chalk on paper
chalk on paper
30 × 21 cm
36 × 28.5 cm
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Faces of London [No.23] 2017
Faces of London [No.24] 2017
chalk on paper
chalk on paper
30 × 21 cm
30 × 21 cm
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Faces of London [No.25] 2016 chalk on paper 42 Ă— 46 cm
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Faces of London [No.26] 2017 chalk on paper 21 Ă— 15 cm
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Faces of London [No.27] 2016 chalk on paper 44 Ă— 36 cm
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Faces of London [No.28] 2016 chalk on paper 38 Ă— 31 cm
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Faces of London [No.29] 2016 chalk on paper 43 Ă— 32.5 cm
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Addendum Drawings
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Addendum Drawing [No.1] 2017 chalk on paper 142 Ă— 110 cm
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Addendum Drawing [No.2] 2017 chalk on paper 91 Ă— 71 cm
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Addendum Drawing [No.3] 2017 chalk on paper 84 Ă— 59 cm
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Addendum Drawing [No.4] 2017 chalk on paper 84 Ă— 59 cm
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Addendum Drawing [No.5] 2017 chalk on paper 76 Ă— 56 cm
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Addendum Drawing [No.6] 2017 chalk on paper 76 Ă— 56 cm
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Addendum Drawing [No.7] 2017 chalk on paper 59 Ă— 52 cm
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Addendum Drawing [No.8] 2017 chalk on paper 59 Ă— 84 cm
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Addendum Drawing [No.9] 2017 chalk on paper 56 Ă— 42 cm
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Addendum Drawing [No.10] 2017 chalk on paper 56 Ă— 76 cm
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Addendum Drawing [No.11] 2017 chalk on paper 84 Ă— 59 cm
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Addendum Drawing [No.12] 2017 chalk on paper 84 Ă— 59 cm
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Addendum Drawing [No.13] 2017 chalk on paper 84 Ă— 59 cm
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Addendum Drawing [No.14] 2017 chalk on paper 75 Ă— 56 cm
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PAUL EMSLEY BIOGRAPHY 1947 Born in Glasgow. Brought up in South Africa 1969 Trained as a graphic designer, Cape Technical College, Cape Town 1970-76 Worked as a designer in advertising 1976 Creative Director of BBDO International, Cape Town. Began painting and drawing (self-taught as a painter) 1976-77 Worked as a freelance illustrator in London 1977 Taught design at Cape Technical College, Cape Town 1978-79 Taught design and drawing, Ruth Prowse School of Art, Cape Town 1983-95 Taught drawing and painting at the Department of Creative Arts, University of Stellenbosch 1992 Joined the Redfern Gallery stable of artists 1996 Moved to England. Gave up teaching to devote himself entirely to his art 2007 First Prize in the BP Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London Commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery to paint 2009 a portrait of Sir V. S. Naipaul 2010 Completed portrait of Nelson Mandela, now in the permanent collection of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Johannesburg First Official Portrait of HRH The Duchess of Cambridge 2013 unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery, London
2012 2013
Retrospective Exhibition, Woordfees Artist 2012, Sasol Art Gallery, Stellenbosch The Duchess of Cambridge by Paul Emsley, The Holburne Museum, Bath
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 1978-79 South African Art, touring USA and Brazil Cape Town Biennial 1979 1982 Cape Town Triennial 1985 Cape Town Triennial Standard Bank National Drawing Competition 1987 Drawing Exhibition, University of the Orange Free State 1994 Gerhard Wurzer Gallery, Houston, USA Dickins & Rigg Gallery, Hong Kong ARCO Madrid (with Galerie Levy, Hamburg) Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery 1995 Panoramas of Passage, Exhibition of South African art touring USA Represented South Africa in the United Nations exhibition The Right to Hope, Johannesburg Art Gallery 1997 The Singer & Friedlander/Sunday Times Watercolour Competition, Mall Galleries, London 1998 The Singer & Friedlander/Sunday Times Watercolour Competition, Mall Galleries, London 1999 Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London 2000 Salon de Mars, Geneva The Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London (selected by Emma Sargeant, Michael Parkinson, Colin Tweedy, and Dr Sally Bulgin) The Singer & Friedlander/Sunday Times Watercolour Competition, Mall Galleries, London Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London 2001 First Painting Open, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol The Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London (selected by Ken Howard RA, and Sir Roy Strong) Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 1981 University of Stellenbosch 1982 South African Association of Arts, Cape Town 1993 Sasol Art Museum, University of Stellenbosch 1994 Paul Emsley – Drawings, The Redfern Gallery, London 1995 Paul Emsley – New Drawings and Paintings, The Redfern Gallery, London 1996 Paul Emsley – Drawings, Mary Ryan Gallery, New York 1999 Paul Emsley – Recent Drawings and Paintings, The Redfern Gallery, London 2011 Paul Emsley – Drawings, The Redfern Gallery, London
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2002
2004 2005
2007
2009 2012 AWARDS 1987 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2007 2008
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS National Portrait Gallery, London British Museum, London Nelson Mandela Foundation, Johannesburg South African National Gallery, Cape Town Johannesburg Art Gallery University of the Witwatersrand University of Stellenbosch University of the Orange Free State William Humphreys Art Gallery, Kimberley Sasol Collection Sanlam Art Collection Northwestern University, Chicago
The Singer & Friedlander/Sunday Times Watercolour Competition, Mall Galleries, London The Jerwood Drawing Prize, touring exhibition of the UK (selected by Marco Livingstone, Cornelia Parker and Marina Warner) Balatro Gallery, Palm Beach, USA Naked, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol The Singer & Friedlander/Sunday Times Watercolour Competition, Mall Galleries, London The Jerwood Drawing Prize, touring exhibition of the UK (selected by Stephen Farthing, Martin Kemp and Sarah Simblet) The BP Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London (subsequent tour to Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh) Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London Sunday Times Watercolour Competition, Mall Galleries, London
Standard Bank National Drawing Competition (Merit Award) Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London (Bovis/Architect’s Journal Special Award) First Painting Open, RWA, Bristol (commended) Singer & Friedlander/Sunday Times Watercolour Competition (Third Prize) Singer & Friedlander/Sunday Times Watercolour Competition (First Prize) Singer & Friedlander/Sunday Times Watercolour Competition (Third Prize) Autumn Exhibition, RWA, Bristol (UWE Drawing Prize) British Interior Design Association, Art London (Silver Award for Works on Paper) BP Portrait Award 2007, National Portrait Gallery, London (First Prize) Autumn Exhibition, RWA, Bristol (UWE Drawing Prize)
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Paul Emsley would like to thank his wife Susanne, all the children and family for their love and encouragement and The Redfern Gallery for their unwavering support. Interview © Charlotte Mullins, 2017 Catalogue © The Redfern Gallery, 2017 Photography of works: Douglas Atfield Design: Graham Rees Published to coincide with the exhibition
PAUL EMSLEY NEW WORK at The Redfern Gallery 2 June – 6 July, 2017 Printed by Graphius, Ghent, Belgium Published by The Redfern Gallery, London 2017 ISBN: 978-0-948460-68-5 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying recording or any other information storage or retrieval system without prior permission in writing from the gallery.
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