Small david cass online catalogue 2015

AN EXHIBITION BY

DAVID CASS

DAVID CASS

TONIGHT RAIN TOMORROW MUD 3 JULY - 1 AUGUST 2015

Cover: “Quest’Arno! Quest’Arno!” Rooftops, (detail) 2014, watercolour & gouache on fold-out map, 55 x 80 cms Left: Overpainting in Oil, 2014, miniature tourist postcard & oil, 8.5 x 5.5 cms Back cover: Rain (detail), gouache on vintage jotter, 21 x 14.8 cms

Tonight Rain, Tomorrow Mud features works on paper created whilst travelling over the last eighteen months. My artwork has always been concerned with water and many of these new works tackle inundation as a theme.

I’ve been creating literal depictions of great floods, scenes of inundation and destruction: paintings of Paris in flood (1910), and of Florence in flood (1966).

DAVID CASS 2015

Left: Overspilling I, France, 2014, oil on stock photographs, 21 x 29.7 cms

LUCCA: A STARTING POINT “This set of street drawings are the odd ones out in ‘Tonight Rain, Tomorrow Mud’. They don’t tackle the same theme as the rest of the show, but, these paper works were in fact the starting-point. I began creating new work for this exhibition directly after ‘Years of Dust and Dry’ (The Scottish Gallery, June 2013).

I visited Tuscany again, and spent time in Lucca.

I spent long days on the streets, drawing. I drew in a new style, using mainly pen and paper. I was drawn to architectural features, to Lucca’s haphazard rooftops. I took this newfound handwriting to Florence in late 2013, and combined it with research I’d been doing into the 1966 flood: it was only then that the focus for this exhibition became clear.”

Lucca X - Via Della Cervia, 2013, watercolour & gouache on antique paper, 29.7 x 21 cms

Lucca, Torre Guinigi, 2013, pen on antique paper, 29.7 x 21 cms

Lucca I, pen on antique paper, 14.8 x 10.5 cms

Lucca II, pen on antique paper, 21 x 29.7 cms

Lucca III, pen on antique paper, 21 x 29.7 cms

Lucca IV, pen on antique paper, 14.8 x 10.5 cms

Lucca V & VI, pen on antique paper, 14.8 x 10.5 cms

FLORENCE After a prolonged period of intense rain in late October and early November 1966, in the early hours of November 4th, two Valdarno dams north of Florence began to propel up to 2000 cubic meters of water per second towards the city. Florence was rapidly inundated as the Arno spilled over, rushing to fill every part of the city. Mud, oil, fuel and filthy water spread through Florence - at its peak reaching 22 feet in Santa Croce, covering almost 7000 acres in and around the city. By the evening of that same day the waters began to receed, leaving behind some 600,000 tons of mud and debris and utter devastation - to the city and to its inhabitants.

“Quest’Arno! Quest’Arno!” Floodlines II, 2013, watercolour on antique paper, 34 x 24 cms

“Quest’Arno! Quest’Arno!” Chiesa dei SS Apostoli, 2013, watercolour on antique paper, 31 x 24 cms

“Quest’Arno! Quest’Arno!” Santa Croce, 2013, watercolour on antique paper, 25 x 19 cms

“Quest’Arno! Quest’Arno!” Zona Gavinana, 2014 over painted monochrome print with watercolour & gouache 35 x 52 cms

“Paintings, drawings and overpaintings. Artworks that imagine and exaggerate scenes of inundation and destruction: the great Florence flood of November 1966. Inspired by photographic documentation from press, postcards, residents’ photographs and from imagination, I’ve painted scenes with antique paints on antique papers, card & wood.

I began creating these artworks during late 2013/ early 2014: 47 years after the flood which claimed at least thirty lives in Florence itself and dozens more in the surrounding area; making 50,000 homeless and damaging 14,000 works of art, plus up to 4 million books & manuscripts.”

“Quest’Arno! Quest’Arno!” Rising Water, watercolour on antique paper, 23 x 29 cms

“Quest’Arno! Quest’Arno!” Via Della Ninna, 2013, watercolour on antique paper, 15 x 23 cms

“Quest’Arno! Quest’Arno!” Rooftops, 2014 watercolour & gouache on fold-out map 55 x 80 cms

“Quest’Arno! Quest’Arno!” Piazza San Firenze, 2013, watercolour on antique paper, 32 x 23 cms

“Quest’Arno! Quest’Arno” I, 2014, watercolour on antique paper, 24 x 34 cms

“Quest’Arno! Quest’Arno!” Arno II, 2014, watercolour on antique paper, 21 x 27 cms

“Quest’Arno! Quest’Arno!” Floodlines I, 2012, watercolour on antique paper, 35 x 26 cms

OVERDRAWINGS MORE IMAGES AVAILABLE

Left to Right: Overdrawing I, XI, XIII, IV, V & XIV, 2013-14 miniature tourist postcards of Florence & pencil, 8 x 5 cms each

PARIS The 1910 Great Flood of Paris was a catastrophe in which the Seine River, carrying winter rains from its tributaries, flooded Paris, France, and several nearby communities.

In late January 1910, following months of high rainfall, the Seine River flooded the French capital when water pushed upwards from overflowing sewers and subway tunnels and seeped into basements through fully saturated soil.

The waters did not overflow the river’s banks within the city, but flooded Paris through tunnels, sewers, and drains. In neighbouring towns both east and west of the capital, the river rose above its banks and flooded the surrounding terrain directly.

Paris Inonde I, 2014, watercolour on antique mounted photograph, 11 x 16.5 cms

Paris Inonde II, 2014, watercolour on antique mounted photograph, 13 x 18 cms

Paris Inonde III, 2014, watercolour on antique mounted photograph, 18 x 24 cms

Paris Inonde IV, 2014, watercolour on antique mounted photograph, 17.5 x 23.5 cms

Paris Inonde V, 2014, watercolour on antique mounted photograph, 11 x 16.5 cms

Paris Inonde VI, 2014, watercolour on antique mounted photograph, 9.5 x 12.5 cms

“Overthinking, overspilling. I’ve been working on this series of overworked photographs at the same time as my Florence flood paintings. Though while my Florence artworks illustrate an actual historical event, this set illustrates a different kind of inundation: perhaps it’s a form of self-portrait, perhaps this flooding is of a more mental nature.”

Montage of Overspilling Series, oil on stock photographs, 21 x 29.7 cms (sold separately)

Overspilling I, France, 2014, oil on stock photograph, 21 x 29.7 cms

Overspilling II, France, 2014, oil on stock photograph, 21 x 29.7 cms

Overspilling III, France, 2014, oil on stock photograph, 21 x 29.7 cms

Overspilling IV, France, 2014, oil on stock photograph, 21 x 29.7 cms

DAVID CASS graduated with First

the RWS). He has exhibited in many of the UK’s

Class Honours from Edinburgh College of Art in

principal institutions: The Scottish Gallery, The

2010, receiving the Royal Scottish Academy’s

Royal Academy, The Royal College of Art, The

John Kinross Scholarship to Florence. The RSA

Royal Scottish Academy, and The Mall Galleries

now holds six of his artworks in their permanent

- and further afield too, in Florence, Brussels,

collection. Cass has spent extended periods of time

Barcelona, Toronto. Cass has pieces in collections

working in Italy, Belgium, Spain and France. He

around the world.

is currently based in the Scottish Borders and takes regular research trips into mainland Europe.

In 2014 & 2015 Cass completed a set of Artists’ Residencies in Spain, simultaneously, he worked

Cass has received a series of notable awards and

for a period with arts organisation Joya: arte +

has been part of several key UK arts events (the

ecología. His ongoing Florence flood project will see

Threadneedle Prize, the Sunday Times Watercolour

his regular return to the city over the coming year.

Competition, the National Open Art Competition,