DAVID TINDLE RA AT 90 SELECTED WORKS
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DAVID TINDLE RA AT 90 SELECTED WORKS - 30 September 2022
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‘One of the finest figurative painters of his generation’
- Rachel Cooke
Senior Royal Academician David Tindle, recently described as “one of the finest figurative painters of his generation” by The Guardian’s Rachel Cooke, celebrated his ninetieth birthday in April. The Redfern Gallery, representing the artist since 1994, will be marking the occasion with a special exhibition this autumn.
Over a long and distinguished career, Tindle has earned a reputation for his outstanding paintings in egg tempera, a painstaking technique seldom used since the Renaissance. His early oil paintings showed an influence of Lucian Freud and John Minton, who both admired his work and became lifelong friends, which was then followed by a series of heavily painted, abstracted beach scenes reminiscent of Frank Auerbach. It was only once Tindle turned to tempera, in the 1970s, that he found a style all his own.
His subsequent studies of interiors, gardens, and still life subjects, each deftly painted and meticulously composed, are all imbued with a unique sense of mood and numinosity. Brian Sewell, who went on to own a number of paintings spanning four decades, recognised Tindle’s gift for seeing “strange beauties in the commonplace”, and the artist has himself written that “perhaps I see religion frozen in time, but ready to break out of ordinary objects”. For example, one of his most important paintings, Still Life with Plastic Cup and Spoon (Tate), hints at the Crucifixion. Commenting on Tea (Government Art Collection), Rachel Cooke notes how the simple thermos flask on a picnic rug assumes an air of nobility, appearing “like a lighthouse in a storm”.
As well as elevating simple subjects, Tindle is also preoccupied with the theme of time, and its passing, and so much of the imagery feels poignant and profound. He often paints the same interiors with views through the window of a back garden. The seasonal changes as seen through the shifting colours of the foliage, the empty garden chair, and distant hot air balloon, are all reccurring motifs that subtly hint at leave-taking and loss.
From his studio in Tuscany, the artist continues to work, and a series of recent paintings, grappling with themes of isolation, biblical analogies, and his own mortality, sold out during the first week of this year’s RA Summer Exhibition. Bringing together seven decades of painting, this upcoming exhibition will be the first dedicated to Tindle since the critically acclaimed retrospective staged in his hometown of Huddersfield, in 2016.
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Paintings
Still Life 1957 Oil on canvas 43.2 x 58 cm £10,000
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Paddington 1961 and sand on canvas x 70.8 cm
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Oil
55.7
£12,000
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The Chapel Window at the Back, East Haddon 1975
Acrylic on paper laid on board 53.3 x 73.5 cm £10,000
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Garden in a Landscape 1979-80 on board x 75 cm
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Acrylic
57
£12,000
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Portrait of a Chair 1980 Egg tempera on board x 56.5 cm £12,000
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40
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Portrait of Phyl c.1980
Egg tempera on board
36 x 31 cm £4,000
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Umbrella 1988 Egg tempera on canvas 63.5 x 76.2 cm £12,000
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Shaded Garden 1989
Tempera on paper laid on board 50 x 77 cm £12,000
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Screen I 1999 on canvas x 45.5 cm
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Acrylic
61
£8,500
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Pear 2000 Egg tempera on board x 30.4 cm
25
19
£3,500
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Sky View, Lucca 2001 Egg tempera on board
49.5 x 61 cm £8,000
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The Wall - Time Passing No. 1 2002 Egg tempera on canvas
81.5 x 61 cm £10,000
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Time Passing, House of Texture Series 2002 Egg tempera on board 124 x 107.5 cm £15,000
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Siesta 2002/03 Egg tempera on board 104.7 x 83.8 cm £15,000
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Santa Maria del Giudice 2003
Egg tempera on panel 63 x 125 cm £15,000
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Morning Coffee 2004 Egg tempera on board
22.7 x 19 cm £2,000
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Siesta, Cueda’s Daydreams 2006 Distemper on cotton on board 100 x 145.5 cm £20,000
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Asparagus 2007 Egg tempera on board x 55.5 cm £10,000
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Family Parody 2007
Egg tempera on board 53 x 90 cm £8,000
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Self Portrait, Light Surfaces 2009 Acrylic on board x 16.2 cm £1,500
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Feline No. 2 2011 on board x 34 cm
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Oil
50
£5,000
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Lemon and Avocado 2015 Oil on canvas x 18 cm
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13
£1,500
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Procession 2015 tempera on board x 33 cm
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Egg
19
£2,000
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53 Eve, Her Father and a Passing Shadow of Her Mother 2017 Acrylic on gesso board 45.7 x 61 cm £5,000
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Next Door’s Garden (An English Garden) 2017
Oil on board 31 x 40.5 cm £4,000
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Works on paper
Drawing for Portrait of a Chair 1979 Pencil on paper
34.3 x 51.4 cm £2,000
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First Early Morning at Guémené 1990 Watercolour on paper
41.2 x 28.5 cm £2,500
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Study of Peaches 1996 Gouache on paper 32 x 45 cm £2,500
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Study for a Self-Portrait 1997 Egg tempera on paper 41.3 x 31 cm £2,500
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Shop Near Via Fillungo 1998
Egg tempera and coloured pencils on paper
40 x 29.2 cm £3,000
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66 Shop Window Girls, Lucca 1998 Egg tempera on paper 34 x 24.5 cm £2,500
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From the Flat Window of via Battisti, Luca, On Arrival 1998
Gouache and watercolour on paper 53 x 75 cm £12,000
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Untitled (Woman and Self-Portrait) 2005 Egg tempera and pencil on paper 32.6 x 28.5 cm £2,500
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Study for Two Blues, Jacket on Chair 2006 Gouache on graph paper
29.7 x 21 cm £2,000
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Girl Trying to Control Her Right Hand 2007 Egg tempera on paper
24 x 37.7 cm £1,500
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Artist and Model 2012 Egg tempera on paper
25 x 35 cm £2,500
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Still Life 2012
Watercolour on card 50 x 39.7 cm £6,000
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Artist and Model 2013 Egg tempera on paper 35 x 50 cm £3,500
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Artist and Model by the Sea 2013 Egg tempera on paper
25 x 34.2 cm £2,500
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Painting a Landscape 2013 Egg tempera on paper 39.4 x 29.5 cm £2,500
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Painting the Model 2013 Egg tempera on paper 34.7 x 25.1 cm £2,500
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Study - Mermaid, Mannequin and Mother 2016
Egg tempera on card
18.7 x 14.7 cm £1,000
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The Beach 2016 Egg tempera on paper 35 x 25.1 cm £2,000
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Unmade Bed with Shadow 2016 Egg tempera on paper 32.5 x 44 cm £2,500
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Serpent and Victim 2018 Egg tempera on paper
35.1 x 28 cm £2,500
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The Bar 2018 Egg tempera on paper x 25.3 cm £2,500
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Front Cover
Unmade Bed with Shadow 2016 Egg tempera on paper 32.5 x 44 cm
Inside Back Cover Portrait of a Chair 1980 Egg tempera on board 40 x 56.5 cm
Catalogue © The Redfern Gallery, 2022
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