Sunday, July 01, 2007

James Gleeson
"Since the 1970s Gleeson has generally made large scale paintings in keeping with the surrealist Inscape genre. The works outwardly resemble rocky seascapes, although in detail the coastline's geological features are found to be made of giant molluscs and threatening crustacae. In keeping with the Freudian principles of surrealism these grotesque, nightmarish compositions symbolise the inner workings of the human mind. Called 'Psychoscapes' by the artist, they show liquid, solid and air coming together and directly allude to the interface between the conscious, subconscious and unconscious mind." - quote source.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Gleeson is one of my favourite painters, certainly my favourite surrealist. His Second World War paintings, The Citadel and The Sower would be his most "monstrous".

Some of his more symbolist material from the fifties and sixties leaves me a bit cold, but his work since the seventies had been almost uniformly brilliant, such as the extraordinary The Arrival of Implacable Gifts.. Some other examples can be seen here.

As I'm pretty much a lurker I'll take this opportunity to say how much I like your blog. Excellent!