Andrew Grassie Westbund 2, Shanghai Art Fair, China, 2016
Tempera on paper on board
12,9 x 17,2 cm (unframed)
26,3 x 30,6 x 3 cm (framed)
The image depicts an interior view of the West Bund Art Center in Shanghai, site of the annual West Bund Art & Design Fair.
Initially the artist saw anonymous archival images taken of nearby Art 021’s exhibition space. Grassie instructed a photographer to make additional photographs of the West Bund location, approximating the documentary aesthetic of the earlier anonymous images. From these approximately 50 commissioned pictures the artist chose four and, anticipating the deliberate design of art fair presentations and the crowds of attending visitors, has painted the empty spaces in advance of their use. Although the paintings are based on these images, they have substantially different quality from the photographic sources.
Andrew Grassie’s paintings are almost always based on photographs the artist has taken himself or in some cases found. Often they have been elaborately staged, although this effort is veiled by the ostensibly unassuming matter-of-factness the small, precisely painted works exude. The works are executed with tempera, a technique associated with pre-Renaissance panel paintings anteceding the development of oil paint. Tempera dries very rapidly and remains relatively sheer. To create cover and solid colors therefore many layers are needed. The final image is modulated through the application of multiple different glazes.
Grassie’s paintings of exhibition views have a stillness that sometimes belies their subject matter, for example those of the process of installation. The images have a timeless quality, even though they also suggest an action is taking place, that the inhabitants of these spaces had perhaps only briefly left the room or wandered offstage or off screen.
The works combine absolute self-negation with absolute assertion of control: in the process of painting a photograph that include other artist’s works, Grassie is chameleon-like depicting those works; at the same time, the spatial and conceptual constructions in which his images of installation engage (especially the fictional ones “curated” by the artist for his own works), grant him momentarily control over space and history of an institution or gallery. In addition, his insertion of a fixed point of view can at times act disorienting on a spectator: even as one probes a believable space, one’s ability to explore is restrained. Grassie has spoken of wanting to achieve an “airtight quality that creates a sort of aura of mystery around simple things,” comparing the effect to a vacuum, “as if reality were wrapped in cling film or a layer of thick air.”
Initially the artist saw anonymous archival images taken of nearby Art 021’s exhibition space. Grassie instructed a photographer to make additional photographs of the West Bund location, approximating the documentary aesthetic of the earlier anonymous images. From these approximately 50 commissioned pictures the artist chose four and, anticipating the deliberate design of art fair presentations and the crowds of attending visitors, has painted the empty spaces in advance of their use. Although the paintings are based on these images, they have substantially different quality from the photographic sources.
Andrew Grassie’s paintings are almost always based on photographs the artist has taken himself or in some cases found. Often they have been elaborately staged, although this effort is veiled by the ostensibly unassuming matter-of-factness the small, precisely painted works exude. The works are executed with tempera, a technique associated with pre-Renaissance panel paintings anteceding the development of oil paint. Tempera dries very rapidly and remains relatively sheer. To create cover and solid colors therefore many layers are needed. The final image is modulated through the application of multiple different glazes.
Grassie’s paintings of exhibition views have a stillness that sometimes belies their subject matter, for example those of the process of installation. The images have a timeless quality, even though they also suggest an action is taking place, that the inhabitants of these spaces had perhaps only briefly left the room or wandered offstage or off screen.
The works combine absolute self-negation with absolute assertion of control: in the process of painting a photograph that include other artist’s works, Grassie is chameleon-like depicting those works; at the same time, the spatial and conceptual constructions in which his images of installation engage (especially the fictional ones “curated” by the artist for his own works), grant him momentarily control over space and history of an institution or gallery. In addition, his insertion of a fixed point of view can at times act disorienting on a spectator: even as one probes a believable space, one’s ability to explore is restrained. Grassie has spoken of wanting to achieve an “airtight quality that creates a sort of aura of mystery around simple things,” comparing the effect to a vacuum, “as if reality were wrapped in cling film or a layer of thick air.”
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