Overview
His work subscibes to the western tradition of gestural painting, Martin produces monochrome paintings on an aluminium background upon which the brushstroke becomes the subject of the piece.
The Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac is happy to announce a new exhibition of work done by Jason Martin. This young painter from London was born in 1970 and turned up on the international art scene in the nineties.If he was once part of the ‘Sensation’ generation, group of young British Artists that showed at an exhibition of the same name, his work has since developped and he is now represented in some of the best known international collections - Deutsche Bank Collection, Denver Art Museum and the Birmingham Museum.
His work subscibes to the western tradition of gestural painting, Martin produces monochrome paintings on an aluminium background upon which the brushstroke becomes the subject of the piece. Six large works are on show here, including a large tondo measuring 2,5 metres diameter, this and other works of varying size make up the exhibition. Colour is the starting point, the background remains saturated sometimes‚ visible, sometimes invisible, through grooves made by the brushstroke. The light hides itself in the crevices, sculpted by the line of the brush.
Jason Martin makes his own paintbrushes, this is noteworthy today when paint is sold in specially formulated tubes and brushes are industrially produced. Here we see the painters gestures, sometimes sweeping, sometimes abrupt; the movement becomes painting and its subject matter. The material runs dripping, trickling off the edge of the metallic surface; the rest of a work in progress. Martin has had to choose the boundaries of each work; this is the artists process of creation...
His work is a celebration colour, every shade is used as Martin is the happy painter enjoying the wonders of his palette; here we are far from conceptual art theories. Colour comes to represent a thought, this colour is put into action; this is reinforced by the titles of the works chosen by the artist. The paintings poetic titles, such as ‘Boboli’ evoke tÇhe spirit of a Florentine garden whilst ‘Shinto’ takes us further east, towards the Orient.
So, to the Orient.... “Once a line is drawn, there exists an opposition between the empty and the filled space. We must create variety; how the space is changed becomes important; a compacted, concentration of space alternates with hollow, undulating line, this is made to work by the Spirit” ÆQuoted from Py Yen T’u on the subject of chinese painting from the Ts’ing Dynasty. If the western tradition of painting, from Pollock to Soulages, has taught us to look at movement in painting Jason Martin seeks to draw our attention back to this style, placing it in the present. Through Martin’s vision of his materials and the play of light he invites us to go deeper; he states ‘I have tried to intensify the act of looking’.
