Overview
Martin's singular style of working the luxurious surfaces of his monochrome paintings with a purpose-built comb has become well known internationally.
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac is pleased to announce a new exhibition by British artist Jason Martin entitled Nudes. Considered one of the most important painters of his generation, Martin was among the group of British artists to be launched by Charles Saatchi in the now-famous Sensation exhibition a decade ago.
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac is pleased to announce a new exhibition by British artist Jason Martin entitled Nudes. Considered one of the most important painters of his generation, Martin was among the group of British artists to be launched by Charles Saatchi in the now-famous Sensation exhibition a decade ago.
Since then, Martin's singular style of working the luxurious surfaces of his monochrome paintings with a purpose-built comb has become well known internationally. In this new body of works, NUDES, he explores from a new perspective incorporating a vertical outline of his own body into the surface patterns.
NUDES presents a group of works where the action begins from the upper most reach of his arms, while standing on a ladder; he literally dances down the surface pressing with his body weight against the work, bending from one side to the other as he sways down the steps. This new vertical field is illustrated in three superb three-meter paintings, King (black|), Darling (red) and Her (ivory).
Other large square format works like the lush pink Couple provides a lively, rich skin tone surface that swirls and overlaps into organic folds of paint. If Couple is the body of the exhibition, a dryer, olive green work takes the opposite point of view as a more cerebral exploration of how the paint can be used to achieve a more curious, intellectual stance.
A selection of medium and smaller works illustrate the wide range between these two points of view. The more juicy and erotic the pink-toned Nudes become, the more elegant and ethereal their opposite burgundy, aubergine and magenta paintings appear. And it is in the tension between these two sensibilities in his new work, that the energy, dynamism and surprise reveals itself. The viewer is taken into a new dimension through his work, the visual fields are animated by the gesture of his body and this physical presence is felt in each of the works regardless of size.
A hardcover catalogue with essays by Daniel Abadie and Ann Hindry will be published on the occasion of the exhibition.
