Glenn Brown employs strategies of appropriation, but with two twists. First, he distorts his originals to often-surreal effect. Second, he takes a particular relish in the process of painting – and, as the current display at the Brown Collection demonstrates, in mark-making in particular. Brown mixes his own paintings and drawings with works from the impressive collection he has built up with his partner, Edgar Laguinia. The emphasis in ‘Hoi Polloi’ (to 8th Aug) is on artists obsessed by mark-making – so much so that Brown talks of the people depicted being ‘made of marks’ rather than flesh; and of the mark as the artist’s equivalent of unique handwriting – in his own case, baroque, fluid and curvaceous. You might call Brown a Marksist.
The baroque brushwork abounds in ‘Hot Love’, although its grisaille looks more cool than hot, and – at first glance – abstract. Or are we getting a close-up of some anatomical rudeness consistent with the title? Look more closely, and we’re zooming in on the portrait of an archbishop, hence the glimpse of his mitre. The centrality of the ear in Brown’s radical crop suggests the cleric is listening to something, perhaps in a confessional.
Brown appropriates his titles as well as his images, often to enigmatic effect – he’s as likely to create a sense of disharmony or misalignment as any explication. Here, though, the title can be fitted to what we see: it refers to ‘Red Hot Catholic Love’, a 2002 episode of the satirical series ‘South Park’, in which the target is the sexual corruption of the Church. To give you a flavour of that, when a prelate proposes that priests give up their abuse of boys, he is shouted down by others, one of whom explains that ‘The Holy Document of Vatican Law states that a priest, bishop, or cardinal cannot get married, so where are we to get our sex?’ Perhaps that relates to what the archbishop hears here…
Paul Carey-Kent selects a ‘Gallery of the Month’, a ‘Show of the Month’, a ‘Work of the Month’ and a ‘Book of the Month’ for his weekly column in FAD. A selection of past gallery choices will be available shortly in book form, price £5. You can also see Paul in conversation with Tabish Khan at the London Art Fair for a lively introduction to his new book Galleries To Go. Details HERE
