• About the artist
    • curriculum vitae
  • what's new?
  • 2016
  • 2014
  • 2011
    • atlas of amnesia (drawings)
    • atlas of amnesia (sketches)
    • THIS is how the BEAST enters the EARTH
  • 2002-2009
    • Geographic Tongue (2009)
    • Geographic Tongue (paintings)
    • Geographic Tongue (drawings)
    • Topography of Ooze (2008)
    • Mapping Etcetera (2006)
    • Mapping Etcetera #2 (2006)
    • Digital Remixes (2006)
    • Terra Incognita (2002-03)
  • 2000-2001
    • Manifest Density
    • Daytripper and Nightcrawlers
  • 1997-1999
    • Songs of the Earth
  • 1992-1997
  • Muttering Towards Ecstacy
  • 1985-1991
    • Theatre of REconstruction
    • Earth House Hold
    • Peek-A-Boo
Into The FIRE

Steven Campbell's theatre of the absurd

10/12/2012

2 Comments

 
Picture
Steven Campbell, A Salty Tale: In a Drought a Man Saves a Whale by his Perspiration and Tears, 1985
I have always been partial to British painters. My earliest influences, as a student in the early 80's, included David Hockney, Francis Bacon, Patrick Proctor and Lucien Freud. Eventually, their influences were replaced by the emerging German and Italian artists in the mid-eighties. You know, the usual suspects, Kiefer, Immendorf, Clemente, Paladino, etc. But then, one day, in the late 1990's, I was shopping for art books and came across The New British Painting.

That's where I first saw Steven Campbell's painting called A Salty Tale: In a Drought a Man Saves a Whale by his Perspiration and Tears, 1985. Everything you need to know about Campbell is right there in that title. The whimsy, the monumental symbolism of the whale, layers of personal and universal meaning. It might as well be called Blood, Sweat and Tears. I was hooked. My own work began to shift.

Picture
This is the first large-scale narrative painting I did called From Mud to Miracle. Campbell's influence here is obvious. The absurd dreamlike scenario, odd figures making strange gestures. Like a dream, I'm sure there are layers of "meaning" in there. I'm not particularly interested in de-coding its meaning. I'm more interested in creating psycho-spiritual tableaux where life can unfold in all its multi-dimensional complexity. I've include two more paintings by Steven Campbell that I love as well as a link to other online examples of his work.

Steven Campbell was a Scottish painter who didn't study art until his mid-twenties, after a few years working in a factory. He was part of new wave of figurative artists who emerged in the 1980's that became knowns as The Glasgow Boys. Campbell moved to New York and became something of an Art Star for a while. However, he was unhappy in New York and soon moved back to Scotland where he promptly disappeared from the international scene. A fabulous book on Campbell's paintings by Duncan MacMillan was published in 1993. Unfortunately, Campbell died of a ruptured appendix on 15 August 2007, aged 54. The only known video footage of him that I could find is here on Youtube.

To see more amazing paintings by Steven Campbell, check out this site.

Picture
Steven Campbell, Painting in Defence of Migrants
Picture
Steven Campbell, St. Sebastian, Curtain.
2 Comments
fat loss factor review dr. charles link
3/21/2013 07:17:23 pm


Great article, totally what I was looking for.

Reply
kevin trudeau scam link
7/18/2013 06:47:38 pm

This is something that needs to be applauded to. The paintings seem to have come from emotions and a lot of pain. The painting might seem so weird but it has a thousand meaning to it. The artist, who did this, needs to be remembered.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Charles Hackbarth

    Rambling thoughts about art and creativity.

    Archives

    September 2014
    August 2014
    May 2013
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012

    Categories

    All
    Collaboration In Art
    Drawing Together
    Group Art

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.