‘High White Fen’ 80 x 40 on Cradled Board
(Detail ‘High White Fen’)
Detail ‘ High White Fen’
If someone told you that a painting of a landscape was a close recording of a particular place or location, you would accept their version of events. If they told you it was non representational, but an evocation of feelings, memories and ideas you might accept their argument. If they told you it was just pigment applied on a flat surface with an assortment of tools and brushes the truth of that statement would be incontrovertible. If they told you that the human capacity for producing signs and symbols grew exponentially as we dragged ourselves out of the marshland and swamps you would possibly recognise that drive and impulse. If they told you that some of these signs and symbols, by a process of global attention and universal acclaim can command exorbitant market values you would ask why? How can that be?