WILLIAM FOYLE SELF-PORTRAITS
WILLIAM FOYLE SELF-PORTRAITS 25th - 27th October 2017 10 am - 5 pm
Ross’s Montgomery Street Belfast, BT1 4NX
Works are available for sale upon receipt of this catalogue Works can be viewed online at www.williamfoyle.com Enquires to: Leonora Martin t: +44 (0)7880 746231 e: info@williamfoyle.com
William Foyle’s early life was immersed in music. However, it was in painting that he found expression for the world around him; music was merely the backdrop. His ability was recognised when he was awarded an art scholarship to Stowe and where he became the youngest pupil ever to receive the Drawing Prize. He later entered the Edinburgh College of Art. The son of an English Hungarian father and an Irish mother he spent regular periods in Antrim and Donegal absorbing the landscape and the ever changing light.As a professional painter, Foyle has an intellectual approach to his work and travels extensively in Europe visiting museums and galleries and drawing on the experiences and people that he meets. William Foyle has successfully shown in solo exhibitions at two London galleries, Gallery 8, Duke Street, St. James’s and The Royal College of Art, but perhaps the greatest endorsement of his work is a picture purchased in 2016 by the distinguished Ruth Borchard Self Portrait Collection. Foyle’s work is held in collections in USA, France, Monaco, Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Spain and the UK. Professor Maurice Cockrill RA, Keeper of the Royal Academy of Arts (2004-2011) commented, “There is a quality and meaningfulness in these varied works by William Foyle who shows considerable talent and promise. Portrait heads executed in vigorous and vibrant impasto reveal an assurance with the materials and methods of painting that he is rapidly developing”. Sir Timothy Clifford, Director of the National Galleries of Scotland (1984-2006), writing of William in 2012 hailed him as ‘one to watch’. William Foyle was born in 1993 and lives and works in London.
Daniel Clarke, Ross’s
The apparent simplicity of self-portraiture conceals one of the most complex genres in which an artist works, one which has many motivations and which establishes a very particular relationship between the artist and the viewer. This exhibition by William Foyle is made up of a group of self-portraits, most of which were completed over a short period of around twelve months, forming a particularly intense and revealing process of self-analysis. Nearly every image concentrates solely on the artist’s head, pushing it into direct confrontation with the viewer on a lifelike scale. There are rarely other distractions, such as studio props or compositions that include a fuller figure, to distract from the intensity of this engagement. Yet there are constantly shifting dynamics across this series of paintings, drawings and prints, evoking particular associations and suggesting an accompanying change in their mood. The artist’s own frustration with the unavoidably slow narrowing-in on the single ideal image can be sensed throughout the exhibition as he moves closer to us or further away, or stares back from a new angle as if trying to see something that has not yet been captured on the sheet or canvas. There are a range of media used and some images appear to be quickly, spontaneously achieved, while at other times a slower accumulation of the paint surface demonstrates another change in Foyle’s method. Occasionally there is more concern to create a likeness, which is then almost obliterated in other works. But the control evident across these self-portraits, the awareness of mark-making and of the relationship of the image to the mark, is particularly striking given the artist’s age at the time. This is a direct and highly personal body of work, a journey to which the viewer is drawn in, and which also demonstrates a great interest in the history and the nature of self-portraiture itself.
Dickon Hall, September 2017
1
Self-Portrait, 2010 oil on canvas 16 x 16 in
2
Self-Portrait, 2010 oil on paper 22 x 19 in
3
Self-Portrait, 2010 oil on paper 21 x 18 in
4
Self-Portrait, 2010 oil on paper 23 x 17 in
5
Self-Portrait, 2010 oil on paper 21 x 16 in
6
self-Portrait, 2010 16.5 x 12 in oil on paper
7
Self-Portrait, 2010 23 x 16.5 in oil on paper
8
Self-Portrait, 2010 12 x 12 in oil on paper
9
Self-Portrait, 2010 18 x 14 in oil on paper
10
Self-Portrait, 2010 18 x 14 in oil on paper
11
Self-Portrait, 2011 12 x 10 in oil on canvas
12
Self-Portrait, 2010 18 x 16 in oil on paper
13
Self-Portrait, 2010 30 x 24 in oil on canvas
14
Self-Portrait, 2010 14 x 10 in oil on canvas
15
Self-Portrait, 2012 47 x 27 in oil on canvas
16
Self-Portrait, 2013 27 x 17.5 in oil on canvas
17
Self-Portrait, 2013 20 x 30 in oil on canvas
18
Self-Portrait, 2010 23 x 16 in oil on paper
19
Self-Portrait, 2010 20 x 14 in oil on paper
20
Self-Portrait, 2010 18 x 16 in crayon on paper
21
Self-Portrait, 2010 20 x 16 in oil on paper
22
Self-Portrait, 2011 19 x 15 in watercolour on paper
23
Self-Portrait, 2012 12 x 17 in oil on board
24
Self-Portrait, 2012 23 x 14 in monotype
25
Self-Portrait, 2013 18 x 13 in monotype
26
Self-Portrait, 2011 23 x 16 in monotype
27
Self-Portrait, 2011 18 x 11 in monotype
28
Self-Portrait, 2012 22 x 19 in acrylic on paper
29
Self-Portrait, 2012 20 x 16 in acrylic on cardboard
30
Self-Portrait, 2012 16 x 12 in monotype
31
Self-Portrait, 2009 16.5 x 11.5 in crayon on paper
WILLIAM FOYLE SELF-PORTRAITS
25th – 27th October 2017 Ross’s, Montgomery Street, Belfast, BT1 4NX 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Self-Portrait, 2010 Self-Portrait, 2010 Self-Portrait, 2010 Self-Portrait, 2010 Self-Portrait, 2010 Self-Portrait, 2010 Self-Portrait, 2010 Self-Portrait, 2010 Self-Portrait, 2010 Self-Portrait, 2010 Self-Portrait, 2011 Self-Portrait, 2010 Self-Portrait, 2010 Self-Portrait, 2010 Self-Portrait, 2012 Self-Portrait, 2013 Self-Portrait, 2013 Self-Portrait, 2010 Self-Portrait, 2010 Self-Portrait, 2010 Self-Portrait, 2010 Self-Portrait, 2011 Self-Portrait, 2012 Self-Portrait, 2012 Self-Portrait, 2013 Self-Portrait, 2011 Self-Portrait, 2011 Self-Portrait, 2012 Self-Portrait, 2012 Self-Portrait, 2012 Self-Portrait, 2009
oil on canvas 16 x 16 in oil on paper 22 x 19 in oil on paper 21 x 18 in oil on paper 23 x 17 in oil on paper 21 x 16 in oil on paper 16.5 x 12 in oil on paper 23 x 16.5 in oil on paper 12 x 12 in oil on paper 18 x 14 in oil on paper 18 x 14 in oil on canvas 12 x 10 in oil on paper 18 x 16 in oil on canvas 30 x 24 in oil on canvas 14 x 10 in oil on canvas 47 x 27 in oil on canvas 27 x 17.5 in oil on canvas 20 x 30 in oil on paper 23 x 16 in oil on paper 20 x 14 in crayon on paper 18 x 16 in oil on paper 20 x 16 in watercolour on paper 19 x 15 in oil on board 12 x 17 in monotype 23 x 14 in monotype 18 x 13 in monotype 23 x 16 in monotype 18 x 11 in acrylic on paper 22 x 19 in acrylic on cardboard 20 x 16 in monotype 16 x 12 in crayon on paper 16.5 x 11.5 in
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