Stephen Foster
The Punter, Sept 1993 |
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One of the most interesting exhibitions to see at the moment
is a modest show in the entrance foyer of the NorthGuild. In fact,
a suite of 12 paintings on canvas is here, but there is more upstairs,
two more paintings hang alongside Rankle's personal choice from
the permanent collection of the gallery - a delightful Dutch realist
painting by Jacob van Ruisdale and an impressionist landscape by
Corot.
Rankle studied, a couple of decades ago, at Rochdale College of
Art and Goldsmith College in London. During this time he developed
an interest in Chinese painting and philosophy. It is by bringing
together an understanding of traditional Western landscape - Ruisdale
and Corot - to Chinese philosophy, with the addition of Western
abstract painting, the key to Rankle's paintings is unlocked.
They are really all Yin and Yang, and for every comment that I
could make about these paintings, the opposite would also be true.
Each has the look of a traditional landscape, on occasion trees
against brightly lit skies are clearly visible, at other times a
clearly defined leaf is sprawled across the foreground in the middle
of the canvas. But these images are set against abstract painting
with the emphasis on paint. Paint is dragged and scumbled, pushed
and pulled, smeared and spattered and dripped, simply for the love
of painting. In fact these paintings often look like an old Victorian
landscape dragged from a junk shop and nearly completely covered
over with modern abstract techniques. This whole process, and the
paintings themselves, are saved by the link to Chinese philosophy.
T'ai Chi is aimed at completeness, but Chinese philosophy emphasises
the fact that there are two sides to everything. In these paintings
this is shown by the abstract and figurative, the thoughtful and
impulsive, the old and new, the planned and accidental. They are
both inspired and contrived, activity based and contemplative, and
are enjoyable at this level. Unlike much abstract painting, which
is daubed with the same kind of naive sensuous pleasure of a child's
first paint set or a first attempt at making things with clay. These
works are informed by spirit of the East; its calligraphy, its contemplation,
its technical virtuosity.
Amongst the most successful are the Riverfall paintings from the
title of the exhibition. Two of the four in the exhibition are about
three feet by four. One has all the intensity of a Turner at his
most passionate, the blood-red and orange sky and thick ropes of
black paint at the bottom of the picture. The other has a composition
cut in two where a dragged squeegee across the surface has left
many?layered streaks of paint, reminiscent of the contemporary German
artist Gerhardt Richter, who is famous for crossing the boundaries
between pure abstract painting and a kind of photographic realism.
There are also eight smaller paintings which show the complete
oeuvre of his work, with the washed skies and the thick-paint textures
which in an abstract way represent landscape. All the abstract artists'
tricks are here, from daubing, dragging and dripping to scumbling,
scraping and scratching. If you enjoy the pure pleasure of staring
at gorgeous colours, sensuous textures and oozie paint, then this
exhibition is definitely for you.
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