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| Bernard
Culshaw: paintings 14 January – 12 March 2006 |
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| ‘Know then thyself, presume not
God to scan / The proper study of mankind is man’. So wrote
Alexander Pope in his Epistle to Lord Bathurst in 1733. And so quotes
Bernard Culshaw when asked about his paintings. Here’s Pope
again, from the same epistle: Plac’d on the isthmus of a middle state, A being darkly wise, and rudely great: With too much knowledge for the sceptic side, With too much weakness for the stoic’s pride, He hangs between; in doubt to act or rest, In doubt to deem himself a god, or beast; In doubt his mind or body to prefer … For Culshaw there is only one subject for the painter, the depiction of the human condition. In his male and female portraits he takes images from newspapers, magazines, from popular culture, portraying them in oil paint on sheets of 1.5 x 1 metre card. References to Rembrandt are close, and indeed Culshaw cites the artist as being for him the epitome of creative genius. Culshaw’s portraits employ chiaroscuro, and he is bold and free in his handling of paint. His figures, which are mostly head and shoulders, stand almost entirely without background context or support. However, Culshaw’s figures rarely disclose their intimate facial details. Paint is daubed thickly, eyes are obscured by deep shade, the character is disclosed more by body posture than by facial structure. Most articulated is the flesh; the skin on the hand, the texture on the cheek. Culshaw is a reluctant frontman for his work. He has chosen to practise his art independently, and he refuses chronology, denies access to his history. The paintings are what he wants to say in public, and they are the only access one is given to the man behind the brush. |
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