'Painter, Painter: Dan Perfect, Fiona Rae' At Nottingham Castle

The Half Term school break came and is long gone, but I can’t claim I made very good use of it.  I’ve complained about my recurrent knee problems in the past and, after some months of relative improvement, I’ve been in a lot more pain again just lately.  I suspect it may be due to my having been a bit lazy about my physio, just as the spring weather picked up and I jumped on my bike with careless abandon.  I hope things may improve once more if I carefully address those issues, (particularly as I'd put a deposit on a new bike just before the problem reared its head again.

Nottingham Castle, May 2014

Anyway, I must admit I went into a bit of a sulk about it over the holiday and, instead of just getting on with all the stuff I could do sitting down, I spent most of it reading (and writing) in a horizontal position, under the pretense of ‘resting’.  That situation felt increasingly untenable as the week progressed so, in the end, I just ignored the pain and limped off to Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery to view their current exhibition, ‘Painter, Painter: Dan Perfect, Fiona Rae’.  In the event, it provided an excellent distraction and well worth the effort.

Nottingham Castle, May 2014

I’d not been to Nottingham Castle for quite a while despite my frequent visits to the city.  The building actually resembles a Renaissance palace more than any traditional idea of a fortified castle, being completed as a residence for the Duke of Newcastle in 1679, and filled with his lavish collection of status symbol art.  The interior was destroyed in the 1831 Reform Bill Riots, but reinstated as an Art Gallery in 1878.  As municipal museums go, the five-&-a-half quid admission fee is hardly cheap, but it does occupy pleasingly landscaped grounds and commands attractive views over the city from its cliff top terrace.  It’s not a bad place to hang out for a few hours, as indeed I did.  I note the recent announcement of substantial Heritage Lottery Funding for the Castle and ambitious plans for its advancement.  The creation of such visitor 'hotspots' can certainly be a two edged sword, but I guess it's to be welcomed, in principal at least.

View From Nottingham Castle Terrace, May 2014

‘Painter, Painter’ is a show of recent paintings by two interesting nominally abstract painters who also happen to be husband and wife.   I’ve written enthusiastically about Fiona Rae’s work on here before, but Dan Perfect’s was new to me, (could that be his real name? - it’s just too good).  She’s certainly the one with the bigger reputation, but both bodies of work impress me equally, as does the commitment and intent both invest in their chosen medium.

'Painter, Painter: Dan Perfect, Fiona Rae', Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery,
May 2014.  (Photographer Unknown)

It’s unusual for two painters to be so closely linked personally and artistically, (working in the same East London studio complex, and certainly with some shared painterly concerns), and consequently, impressive that each maintains a distinct identity and equally high quality within their output.  With the show divided equally between them, and works by each artist hung in groups, it definitely feels like witnessing a thoughtful dialogue between the two of them.  The glossy catalogue [1.] further reinforces this with its novel back-to-back design, and does represent very good value, (during the exhibition).

Paintings By Fiona Rae, 'Painter, Painter: Dan Perfect, Fiona Rae',  Nottingham Castle
Museum & Art Gallery, May 2014

Perfect and Rae both fit comfortably enough within the tradition of abstract painting but also re-imagine it for the twenty-first century.  I plan to outline some thoughts about each artist’s work later on, but there are definitely some themes that unite the show as a whole.

Dan Perfect, 'Full Fathom Five', Oil & Acrylic On Linen, 2012

Notable amongst these would be a willingness to allow an overall composition to evolve by compiling numerous disparate motifs or painterly gestures.  Indeed, the relationship between expressive mark-making and more consciously constructed motif is key in both oeuvres.  What particularly interests me is the way that one mode can so easily morph into the other and the dialogue this creates between accident and intention and, indeed, the very nature of abstraction itself.  An obvious antecedent for all this would be the the kind of mid-twentieth century Abstract painting typified by Jackson Pollock, (particularly in Perfect’s painting), but, looking further back, I also see echoes of Kandinsky, Klee or Miro and a general tendency for pictographic motifs to evolve either from serendipity, (both artists), or deliberation, (more overtly in Rae).

Paintings By Dan Perfect, 'Painter, Painter: Dan Perfect, Fiona Rae', Nottingham Castle
Museum & Art Gallery, May 2014

Another common denominator between both painters is a distinct Pop sensibility.  This has always been there in Rae’s work, and it was the use of text characters, borrowed motifs and contemporary hieroglyphs that first drew me to her.  Although many of these have recently disappeared, they are often replaced by scattered cartoon-like figures and a prevailing engagement with the appropriated and the kitsch, - often played out via a distinctly synthetic or sugary palette.  If Perfect’s work can sometimes be seen to have one foot in the camp of (British) landscape-derived abstraction, it also suggests a processing and recycling of Pop references in there too.  However entangled, there is a tendency for his painted calligraphy to resolve itself into suggestions of graffiti or cartooning.  He has also spoken openly of being influenced by Marvell comics and of the importance of music to his painting. 

Paintings By Dan Perfect, Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery, May 2014

Nowhere is this more obvious than in the clear engagement with digital technology that both evince.  Perfect makes a clear distinction between his generation of imagery through intuitive drawings and studies, and its careful resampling and the methodical planning of final paintings in the digital realm.  Whilst Rae claims to use Photoshop primarily to make colour decisions, I’m sure digital tools have facilitated much of her collaging and plotting of precise graphic motifs in earlier work.  More intriguing is the sense of a somewhat indefinable form of internal space (and its organisation), within so many of her paintings.  To my mind, there is something ineffably cybernetic about the feel of much of her output.

Fiona Rae, 'Everything Will Be Beyond Your Thinking', Oil & Acrylic
On Canvas, 2012

Ultimately, it is the drawing together of painterly concerns, and more vernacular or decorative traditions, into something fit for a twenty-first century sensibility, that impresses most across the show as a whole.  Indeed, that total disregard for distinctions between ‘High’ and ‘Low’ Art; between the meaningful or ‘felt’ and the decorative may just be the greatest strength of both artists.  If ever proof were needed that painting still has a relevant future, (or that marital bliss is not inimical to creative endeavor), Perfect and Rae provide it.

'Painter, Painter: Dan Perfect, Fiona Rae' continues until 6 July 2014 at Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery, Lenton Road, Nottingham NG1 6EL.


Disclaimer:

Apologies for the slightly patchy quality of my photos here.  I foolishly flattened my camera battery and was forced to rely on my phone.  The fact It was a new and unfamiliar phone, and that I hardly ever use them to take pictures anyway, didn't help either.  In the event, the exposures, whilst not perfect, were better than expected, - but how on earth does anyone ever hold those things steady?




[1.]:  'Painter Painter: Dan Perfect, Fiona Rae' (Exhibition Catalogue), Nottingham, Nottingham City Museums & Galleries, 2014.