75

John Kingerlee (b.1936) ON THE BEARA PENINSULA sig

Currency:EUR Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:10,000.00 - 12,000.00 EUR
John Kingerlee (b.1936) ON THE BEARA PENINSULA sig

Bidding Over

The auction is over for this lot.
The auctioneer wasn't accepting online bids for this lot.

Contact the auctioneer for information on the auction results.

Search for other lots to bid on...
Auction Date:2005 Feb 22 @ 18:00 (UTC)
Location:Ireland
John Kingerlee (b.1936) ON THE BEARA PENINSULA signed in monogram and dated [2004] lower left; dated [1999-2004] on reverse oil on canvas 51 by 76cm., 20 by 30in. For the past twenty years John Kingerlee has lived and painted on the Beara Peninsula in West Cork. During this period he has evolved a technique of painting whereby layers of pigment are applied one over the other, forming thick strata of paint akin to the rocky landscape visible outside his studio window. Each layer requires considerable time to dry and in pictures such as the present work, which can have as many as fifty coats of paint, the entire process is lengthy and deliberative. As the paint accumulates, forms emerge, and Kingerlee responds in kind, coaxing figures out of the crust of paint. In a forthcoming monograph on the artist, Jonathan Benington has written of these figures: ”From the mid-1990s to the present day, the artist has consistently produced paintings of heads that are isolated against neutral backgrounds, staring straight out of the picture towards the viewer. Most of these heads are depicted in isolation, but occasionally they will be lined up with one or two others like in an identity parade, or combined with full-length figures… The densely built-up surfaces of these paintings ensure that the facial features are treated in a very generalised, non-specific manner. They are ageless, timeless, garment-less, of indeterminate creed and race, sometimes sexless, although their paucity of hair generally gives them away as male… Kingerlee recognises the significance of the head both as receiver and transmitter of information: “my heads have landscapes and figures in them… I see the whole journey of life within the surface of these works”. The reference to surface here is significant, for it implies a reverential attitude towards his subjects, a recognition that the paint he is pushing around is attempting to convey an ineffable reality, the sacred spark of life that unites us with our fellow creatures”.