St Georges Market...

Comment

Comment by Aaron Wooten on December 15, 2012 at 10:13am

Very nice, rugged style.

Comment by Resident Curator on October 21, 2012 at 12:14pm

Curator’s Comment:  

 

While highly realistic, I’m drawn to these works less for their technical prowess than for their dignified depiction of people in what appear to be dire economic straits. There is humanistic warmth exuded in the paintings that never crosses into patronizing sympathy.  They remind me of Dorothea Lange’s photographs of sharecroppers during the American Dustbowl- unflinching but resoundingly compassionate in their sheer universality.  St Georges Market Belfast is particularly poignant in that it allows the viewer a voyeuristic look into the picking of those in a second hand market.   What could have been handled as a jovial genre scene becomes an insightful window into the serious business of making a living. The seller’s expression is of concerned focus, as the shopper doubtfully inspects the tangled heap of shabby clothing. I wonder if these women, while relatively similar, are intended to show subtle class distinctions, to represent the power relationship in such grey market transactions. I also like the more direct oil portrait simply titled Alex.  The subject has a worn face, no doubt related to the lives of the subjects in your other pieces.  But the lack of environmental context contributes to the feel that this is everyman.