James Gillick : Still Lifes 2013

JAMES

GILLICK STILL LIFES 2013

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JAMES

GILLICK STILL LIFES 2013

A L L W O R K S AVA I L A B L E O N R E C E I P T O F C ATA L O G U E .

P H O T O G R A P H S TA K E N AT T H E A RT I S T ’ S S T U D I O & H O M E .

FRAMES BY PHILLIP ELLETSON.

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PA I N T I N G

“After their expulsion from the Earthly Paradise, Adam set himself to dig and Eve to spin. And among the arts they developed to survive is that which is called painting for which it is necessary to have imagination and an able hand to reveal things which are not there, capturing the shadow of their essence, to demonstrate that that which is not, is.”

That’s my version of the origins of painting as recounted by Cennino Cennini, a third-generation Florentine disciple of Giotto, around 1400.

In common with Cennino, James Gillick has a medieval reverence for his craft and his materials: wood and linen, glue and oil, pigments and varnish. He strives in his work not to betray their fundamental honesty, their inanimate authenticity. Through the recent hard and blustery winter months, in his freezing studio, he has refined his own oils, mixed his own paints, stretched his canvases taut over small wooden panels and lovingly applied layers of gesso to produce the smoothest and most gleaming of surfaces. All this in preparation for the silent glide of the sable brush, the pig-bristle dab of impasto, the feathered finish of a discreet shadow, in the service of capturing essences and the “being there” quality of objects which are not. They are the humble essences of everyday life: a bowl of sprats or chicory, some hard-boiled eggs, snowdrops in a silver pot, a knife, a cup.

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Gillick’s concern for simplicity is combined with an instinct for mathematical precision, but the resulting compositions are not cold or cerebral; they suggest dialogues between forms, conversations and complicities. Perhaps a man who has a large family, as he does, cannot but think in these terms. Striking too, in his work, is his tendency to discipline the exuberance of his virtuoso talent.

He is suspicious of art for art’s sake, because painting is necessary, it matters and it has an ethical dimension ordered towards the good of people.

To finish with the fifteenth-century Cennino: among those who turn to painting, “most to be commended are those who come to practice the art because of love or on account of a kindly disposition. They must clothe themselves with the following virtues: love, fear, obedience and perseverance.”

Gabriele Finaldi Director: Museo del Prado

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STUDIO LIFE 2013

It is winter. I am exhibiting in china, the guest of an avaricious billionaire who is building a massive suburb of Tianjin to house 200,000 non-existent middle class locals in plastic luxury.

I feel a long way from home surrounded by this building site, this absurdly transient sim-city.

I am a one man micro-enterprise specialising in quality sitting at the very centre of a vast scheme that epitomises the industrialisation of the modern world. I feel ridiculous.

But as vast international corporations like the one here in China, educational institutions and government departments continue to merge, grow and lose their true sense of purpose, the need for beautiful, bespoke work arises at the very opposite end of the scale. In bolder moments I remind myself that this is a useful place to be. Neither am I alone in daring to be small; far from it in fact. I am not even alone in my studio anymore.

In November last year I finally opened the doors of my workshop to apprentices. I was being approached so often by young artists wishing to become interns that I devised an annual scheme in which 3 or 4 of them come to a newly built part of my studio to study and run the first year of their business under my guidance. They compile comprehensive business plans, learn to live well and eat well in a house I own close to the studio and it is almost free. More or less as a courtesy they drop everything and help me when I am busy (which is great) and the best of them know that noticing everything that happens here is the surest route to their own success. The business side of the project makes an artist learn very fast. Their art ceases to be a pointless middle-class indulgence; it becomes first a project, then a life, then an idea with a set of principles. You should see how quick they are learning.

So I have help with various aspects of the practical work in the studio. This means that when a client asks me to return to a subject, to paint a ‘Reprise’ I have help with so many of the countless bits of simple work that these paintings require.

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In the effort to give these long lasting objects some sort of permanent, traceable provenance as they get scattered over the planet the back of each painting receives a label. Two engraved brass plates sandwich a small calfskin manuscript bearing my signature and all the painting’s details, including its status as the troublesome, exhausting ‘original’ or as the ‘reprise’.

My confidence grows. It actually seems to be here in mainland China that everything I am doing back home makes sense. Here I witness a biddable mass of rural people who appear ravenous to plant, cultivate and then gorge themselves on basic material pleasures after a long season of enforced winter. An overwhelming sense of the England I know emerges. I love the deep foundations of our family houses, the stability of our culture and the insightful admiration we display before objects made well. I am also proud to come from among a choosy, questioning people who have had the guts to claim and own their freedoms generation after generation.

China is also strange in that it is a childless place – as if the Pied Piper has visited. By their own admission their economy is facing a population catastrophe.

So now I meet confidence again: working with my Young Artists and making things slowly and well, as I do, I can see from the vantage point of this building site that there are two ‘commodities’ that will be hugely sought after in 30 years time: rare objects beautifully crafted and educated children from strong families.

The billionaire needs me.

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CHICORY, TRUFFLE & BALSAMIC VINEGAR C H I C O RY, T R U F F L E & B A L S A M I C V I N E G A R 11 ¼” X 18” (286MM X 457MM) O I L S O N L I N E N O V E R PA N E L ORIGINAL: £11,800 REPRISE: £9,500 8

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BLUE EGGS & BUTTER PAT B L U E E G G S & B U T T E R PAT

5 ¼” X 10 3/8” (135MM X 265MM) O I L S O N L I N E N O V E R PA N E L ORIGINAL: £6,800 REPRISE: £5,500 10

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BREAD, KNIFE & COPPER JUG B R E A D, K N I F E & C O P P E R J U G

13 ¼” X 23 3/8” (338MM X 593MM) O I L S O N L I N E N O V E R PA N E L ORIGINAL: £11,800 REPRISE: £9,500 12

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SPANISH WHITE ONIONS, MILK JUG & CLOVES S PA N I S H W H I T E O N I O N S , M I L K J U G & C L O V E S 10 ½” X 21 1/8” (266MM X 537MM) O I L S O N L I N E N O V E R PA N E L ORIGINAL: £12,500 REPRISE: £10,800 14

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SILVER POT & BOOK S I LV E R P O T & B O O K

15 ¾” X 11 7/8” (400MM X 300MM) O I L S O N L I N E N O V E R PA N E L ORIGINAL: £9,500 REPRISE: £7,600 16

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CHERRY SCONES & JAM C H E R RY S C O N E S & J A M

6” X 8” (153MM X 202MM) O I L S O N L I N E N O V E R PA N E L ORIGINAL: £6,000 REPRISE: £4,800 18

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FIVE CHINESE PEARS FIVE CHINESE PEARS

6” X 15 1/8” (153MM X 384MM) O I L S O N L I N E N O V E R PA N E L ORIGINAL: £7,800 REPRISE: £6,000 20

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SPRATS IN A STONEWARE BOWL S P R AT S I N A S T O N E WA R E B O W L

7 ¼” X 9 ¼” (182MM X 235MM) O I L S O N L I N E N O V E R PA N E L ORIGINAL: £8,000 REPRISE: £6,750 22

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SPRATS IN A GRIDDLE PAN, EGGS & SALT SHAKER S P R AT S I N A G R I D D L E PA N , E G G S & S A LT S H A K E R 9” X 13 3/8” (230MM X 353MM) O I L S O N L I N E N O V E R PA N E L ORIGINAL: £9,000 REPRISE: £7,200 24

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TEN SNOWDROPS T E N S N OW D RO P S

6” X 8” (152MM X 202MM) O I L S O N L I N E N O V E R PA N E L ORIGINAL: £7,000 REPRISE: £5,600 26

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TWO NECTARINES & A BOWL T W O N E C TA R I N E S & A B O W L

3” X 7” (89MM X 178MM) O I L S O N L I N E N O V E R PA N E L ORIGINAL: £5,200 REPRISE: £4,000 28

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EGGS, EBONY BOWL & RUBY GLASS CUP E G G S , E B O N Y B OW L & RU B Y G L A S S C U P 11 1/2” X 14” (293MM X 355MM) O I L S O N L I N E N O V E R PA N E L ORIGINAL: £9,000 REPRISE: £7,200

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BREAD & NORTH WIND JUG B R E A D & N O RT H W I N D J U G

16 ½” X 21” (265MM 535MM) O I L S O N L I N E N O V E R PA N E L ORIGINAL: £11,500 REPRISE: £9,200 32

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THREE SOFT NECTARINES T H R E E S O F T N E C TA R I N E S

3” X 7” (88MM X 178MM) O I L S O N L I N E N O V E R PA N E L ORIGINAL: £5,200 REPRISE: £4,000 34

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J A M E S WA S B O R N I N N O R F O L K , E N G L A N D I N 1 972 J O I N T & S O LO S H OWS J O N AT H A N CO O P E R , PA R K WA L K G A L L E RY, LO N D O N ( S O LO ) C L A G A M E FA I R ( W I T H T H E O D O R E G I L L I C K ) B U RG H L EY H O R S E T R I A L S ( W I T H T H E O D O R E G I L L I C K ) N I G E L STAC Y- M A R K S LT D . , P E RT H ( W I T H T H E O D O R E G I L L I C K ) S O LO S H OW, D U D D I N GTO N M A N O R , N R STA M F O R D R H S C H E L S E A F LOW E R S H OW, ( S O LO ) C L A G A M E FA I R J U LY ( S O LO ) B U RG H L EY H O R S E T R I A L S ( S O LO ) F I P S N OW P O LO WO R L D C U P, T I A N J I N G O L D I N M E T RO P O L I TA N P O LO C LU B , C H I N A ( S O LO )

2 0 0 1 , 0 3 , 0 5 , 0 7, 0 9 , 1 1 2 0 0 2 – 1 0 I N C LU S I V E 2 0 0 2 – 0 9 I N C LU S I V E 2003 2010 2011, 12 2011 2011, 12 2013

S E L EC T E D G RO U P E X H I B I T I O N S E A ST E R N O P E N E X H I B I T I O N C ATTO G A L L E RY M O N T P E L L I E R G A L L E RY, C H E LT E N H A M D I L LO N G A L L E RY, B A R N E S E D I T H G ROV E G A L L E RY, F U L H A M L ’ B I D I G A L L E RY, ST. I V E S N E W G R A F TO N G A L L E RY ( “A RT I STS O F TO DAY & TO M O R ROW ” ) , B A R N E S “ M O N T P E L L I E R ” , ST R AT F O R D - U P O N -AVO N S P E N C E R CO L E M A N G A L L E R I E S , STA M F O R D , L I N CO L N , B E V E R L EY J O N AT H A N CO O P E R “A D E A L E R ’ S EY E ” J O N AT H A N CO O P E R AT A RT, I S L I N GTO N H O L L A N D & H O L L A N D , M AY FA I R , LO N D O N W ROYA L S O C I E T Y O F P O RT R A I T PA I N T E R S , M A L L G A L L E R I E S ROYA L I N ST I T U T E O F O I L PA I N T E R S , M A L L G A L L E R I E S G A L L E RY 1 2 C H E LT E N H A M E A ST E R N O P E N E X H I B I T I O N J O N AT H A N CO O P E R AT H AU G H TO N ’ S A RT A N T I Q U E S , LO N D O N J O N AT H A N CO O P E R AT B A DA’ S A N T I Q U E S & F I N E A RT FA I R , LO N D O N A RT O F G I V I N G , S A ATC H I G A L L E RY, LO N D O N I N G D I S C E R N I N G EY E , M A L L G A L L E R I E S , LO N D O N

1996 1996 - 98 1996 - 01 1996 1996 1996 - 03 1996 2000 - 03 2000 - 03 2000 2001, 02, 03, 05 2002 - 03 2003, 04, 05, 06, 09 2004, 05, 06 2004 2007 2 0 1 0 – 1 2 I N C LU S I V E 2 0 1 0 – 1 3 I N C LU S I V E 2010 2011

N OTA B L E P O RT R A I T CO M M I S S I O N S RT. H O N M A RG A R E T T H ATC H E R V E RY R E V. M . CO U V E D E M U RV I L L E , A RC H B I S H O P O F B I R M I N G H A M H I S H O L I N E S S P O P E J O H N PAU L I I

1998 1999 2004 -05

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Jonathan Cooper Park Walk Gallery

20 Park Walk London SW10 0AQ t: +44 (0)20 7351 0410 mail@jonathancooper.co.uk www.jonathancooper.co.uk

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