Jethro Buck - WILD THINGS, Crane Kalman Gallery 2019

JETHRO BUCK WILD THINGS

CRANE KALMAN GALLERY LTD 178 Brompton Road, London SW3 1HQ Tel: +44 (0)20 7584 7566 www.cranekalman.com / info@cranekalman.com

Wild Things by

JETHRO BUCK

JETHRO BUCK Jethro Buck is a British artist, with a special interest and admiration for traditional Indian Miniature painting, who applies similar techniques in his own work, to explore and celebrate the natural world.

Following his sell-out debut show Axis Mundi at Crane Kalman Gallery in 2017, Buck’s work has been acquired by numerous private collectors including HRH The Prince of Wales, who included 10 of Jethro’s paintings in his 70th birthday exhibition at Buckingham Palace.

In the 20 or so new works in this exhibition, nature is to the fore, as Buck focuses on our planets diminishing biodiversity, triggered by his recent engagement with a re-wilding project in the Caledonian Forest, which the charity, Trees for Life, are restoring.

Jethro believes that as an artist, he is in a special position to comment on the environment. “I see the act of painting the natural world as part of a wider endeavour to establish a relationship with it. My appreciation for a tree, a leaf, a mountain or a fish becomes greater after having painted it.” - JB As is the way in Indian miniature art, Jethro uses a squirrel-hair brush that tapers to the thickness of a single curled hair at the tip. With great practice and control, miniscule detail can be executed. He also produces his own paints, employing traditional methods taught to him by Dr David Cranswick, Jethro’s tutor at the Prince’s School, of grinding pigments from minerals found in nature; Cinnabar, Lapis Lazuli, Malachite and Gold to name a few, mixing the resulting powders with gum Arabic.

“What’s special about these natural colours is that they have been in the earth for thousands of years. It’s like the earth’s already mixed the pigments for you” - JB. Buck’s detailed and expansive images of natural scenes, magical landscapes, fauna and flora, evoke joy and pleasure - emotions to treasure of this wonderful planet, lets hope we can keep it that way.

Jethro and Crane Kalman Gallery will be donating 10% of all sales to the charity Trees for Life.

With special thanks to Nancy Nicholson at Crane Kalman Gallery for her inexhaustible patience and overall contribution to the publication of this catalogue.

JETHRO BUCK (b. 1986) Born Oxford, UK 1986 Lives Cambridge

EDUCATION Falmouth College of Arts, Cornwall 2005 – 2008 The Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts, London 2012 – 2014 Apprentice to Ajay Sharma, Jaipur, India, 2012 Assistant Tutor, The Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts 2014 – 2019

EXHIBITIONS 2018

2017 2015 2014 2013 2010

“Prince and Patron Exhibition” to celebrate HRH Prince Charles’s 70th Birthday, Buckingham Palace, London Solo show “Axis Mundi”, Crane Kalman, London “Light” START Art Fair, Saatchi Gallery, London Prince’s School Degree show, London Solo show, “Free Fall”, Art Jericho, Oxford Solo show, “New Work”, North Wall, Oxford

AWARDS AND PRIZES 2018 2014 2012 2012

Finalist in the Asian Art in London Emerging Artists Award Ciclitira Prize Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) Scholarship The Farjam Foundation Scholarship

Wild Things

UPSTREAM, DOWNSTREAM (in the company of Jethro Buck, or without) The great 15th century Indian mystic, Kabir – saint-poet – wrote endlessly about the relationship of the soul with this world and the one hereafter, often cautioning people about not getting it right. “Hiranaa!”, he wrote once, “samajh boojh pag dharna!”, asking the soul whom he sees as a fawn – curious but innocent – to tread carefully, very carefully, when about to enter a forest. Set your foot in this patch, he says; or in that one; or even in the next. But be sure not to set foot beyond that, for dangers lurk there, traps that you cannot see. He is referring evidently to the trials and temptations of the flesh, to snares of the mind that one is apt to get caught in, and pits of dark thoughts into which one can, unknowingly, fall.

In some ways, Jethro Buck’s work reminds me of Kabir’s mysterious forest, for while he wants us to enter it, he also wants us to know that this is a forest of contrasting, conflicting, images: filled with dangers; unlikely happenings; close encounters; restful passages.You may of course choose not to enter it, but once you do, you have to be prepared for surprises round every corner. Imagine yourself to be close to the paws of a snarling tiger, almost under them, and then look at the world around you. Will it look the same if you were at a safe distance from the great beast? Can you trust your eyes then? A man riding a massive aquatic creature, reins in hand; hunters riding the very animal they have hunted down; shoals of fish, having jumped out of the bowl on which they were painted now making for running streams, as if this were the most natural thing in the world to do; and all this while a beautiful songstress gazes into the eyes of the great tiger, camels who seem to have lost their wise men trudge through sandy plains, women who go about bringing water in pots delicately balanced on their heads, young men who hold aloft nets to catch the sun, and celestials in their Mughal-looking aerial vehicles gaze calmly down from the skies at what is happening in the world below? Unlikely, but real perhaps. For who knows, Jethro seems to ask, what time is, and what is space like?

“I am still digesting the ideas”, he says somewhere, in the context of a different work.

In another painting of his, possibly the most recent of all, the quietly stated ‘Ancient Futures’ – the title itself suggestive of the uncertainties of time – Jethro reveals quite deliberately his sources: the red border with a narrow yellow line inside it comes from Jaipur, he almost tells us himself; the roaming elephants and deer from Kotah, possibly; the lissome young woman guarding her field is from Kangra in the hills; the deer with his wonderfully craned neck is clearly Mughal as are the lattice-work jalis and the towers of the shikargahhunting lodges distributed all over the page; the tiered and carved gopuram-gateway is from the south of India. But there also appear characters from far off Africa perhaps, or from the fields of the Punjab. And why not, he asks?

Everything exists, did or should exist, somewhere or the other.

Jethro can, and claims to, go anywhere – there is this recent foray into Japanese technique and vision, but also going back into Russian icons, for instance – but the aerial roots he has struck in India remain firm. The delicate tracery of leafless trees, the eye for detail, whether rendering fauna or flora, the unflagging emphasis on the sense of wonder, keep serving as reminders. Impossible encounters do not appear to surprise him anymore; one suspects in fact that in some ways he courts them. It is not an inventory of things, or people, or animals, that he is setting out to prepare: it is all – or so at least it seems to me – an exploration. An equestrian Rajasthani prince is followed by, or turns into, another character making away with his beloved on a two-wheeler, and then this changes into a family of four riding the same scooter. There are streams here that meander and turn as if making up their minds about the direction to take. Across vast spaces inhabited by beasts and birds of different feather lovers gaze at each other from impossible distances.What all is out there is the question, and how, if at all possible, does one come to terms with it? If it is not all a dream, can one not invent it? Occasionally, a dream of his startles one.There is – in the painting titled ‘Sembar’ – this dark, deep forest, lit up in patches with winking stars – swarms of gentle fireflies, one senses – at one, distant end of which stands a lone cow, gazing, as if lost. Is that animal us, you and I?

JETHRO BUCK (b. 1986)

Wild Things 21st November 2019 – 11th January 2020

B.N.Goswamy 2019

CRANE KALMAN GALLERY LTD 178 Brompton Road, London SW3 1HQ Tel: +44 (0)20 7584 7566 www.cranekalman.com / info@cranekalman.com

1.

London’s Oak, 2019 Tempera and 22 3/4 ct gold leaf on dyed linen 48 x 46 inches / 121.9 x 109.7 cm

2.

Maharaja on a Horse, (Copy of Maharaja Dhiraj Sing riding a Horse), 2019 Natural pigment on antique paper 12.3 x 8.5 inches / 31.2 x 21.7 cm

3.

Ancient Futures, 2019 Natural pigment on hemp paper 12.4 x 33.5 inches / 31.5 x 85 cm

4.

Emergence, 2019 18ct gold and tempera on linen 38 x 38 inches / 96.5 x 96.5 cm

5.

Winter Lime, 2019

6.

Summer Lime, 2019

Chalk wash, water colour and graphite on hemp paper 25.2 x 16.9 inches / 63.9 x 43 cm

Pencil on hemp paper 25.4 x 17.5 inches / 64.5 x 44.5 cm

7.

My Beloved, 2019 Oil on linen 13.1 x 7.2 inches / 33.3 x 18.2 cm

“A world brimming with mystery and secrets, with awe and good humour- and, yes, with magic�

Nick Kennedy (2017)

8.

The Flower Maker, 2019 Tempera on Linen 55.1 x 39.4 inches / 140 x 100 cm

9.

Horse Chestnut on Midsummer Common, 2019 Natural pigment and tempera on hemp paper 19.1 x 14 inches / 48.5 x 35.5 cm

10.

Fritillary, 2019 Natural pigment on hemp paper 9 x 6.9 inches / 23 x 17.5 cm

11.

Ways of Seeing Tigers, 2019 Natural pigment and gouache on hemp paper 12.2 x 8.3 inches / 31 x 21 cm

12.

Spring, 2019

13.

Summer, 2019

14.

Autumn, 2019

15.

Winter, 2019

Natural pigment on hemp paper 12.5 x 8.5 inches / 31.7 x 21.5 cm

Natural pigment and gouache on hemp paper 12.3 x 8.5 inches / 31.2 x 21.5 cm

Natural pigment and gouache on hemp paper 12.3 x 8.5 inches / 31.2 x 21.5 cm

Ink on hemp paper 12.3 x 8.5 inches / 31.2 x 21.5 cm

17.

Mammals Past (20,000BC), 2019 Natural pigment and gouache on hemp paper 18.9 x 14.2 inches / 48 x 36 cm

Previous page 16.

Wild Things, 2019 Oil and 22 3/4 ct gold leaf on Gesso panels 36 x 72 inches / 91.6 x 183 cm

18.

Golden Orioles, 2019 Natural pigment on wood 18.5 x 11.6 inches / 47 x 29.5 cm

19.

Fishes, 2019 Oil on linen 29.9 x 20 inches / 76 x 51 cm

20.

Mughals on a Vespa, 2019 Natural pigment on antique paper 12.3 x 8.5 inches / 31.2 x 21.7 cm?

21.

Do Tigers Dream?, 2019 Oil on gold gilded paper 5.5 x 17.3 inches / 14 x 44 cm

“His paintings are both an exploration of nature and a celebration of art and beauty. And they are very beautiful.”

Sir David Green KCMG CVO (2017) Former Chair of the Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts and for Director-General of the British Council

22.

The Woman who Plants Trees, 2019 Natural pigment and shell gold on hemp paper 11.2 x 7.7 inches / 28.5 x 19.5 cm

23.

Poppies and Cranesbills, 2019 22 3/4 ct gold leaf and oil on hemp paper 14.1 x 11.4 inches / 36 x 29 cm

24.

Leaping Deer, 2019 Natural pigment on hemp paper 10.7 x 8.3 inches / 27.1 x 21.2 cm

25.

Knockdolian, 2019 Natural pigment and gouache on hemp paper 17.3 x 14.8 inches / 44 x 37.6 cm

JETHRO BUCK WILD THINGS

CRANE KALMAN GALLERY LTD 178 Brompton Road, London SW3 1HQ Tel: +44 (0)20 7584 7566 www.cranekalman.com / info@cranekalman.com

Wild Things by

JETHRO BUCK