David Barton London, United Kingdom
Born Bury Lancashire 1943. Goldsmiths College and ATC Course. On the ATC Course I became a student of Anton Ehrenzweig, whose emphasis on the process of searching for and testing out ideas with words, drawings and paintings in what he called “Tease & Worry Books” in order to find, clarify and develop meaningful imagery, became the necessary core of my work.
The compulsion to work each day is a need to realize – to find – images which make known to me my immediate and ongoing predicament – to tell me my experience of here and now. And to deserve these glimpses which are the realized images or sequences of images, I have to undergo whatever the process demands – even if it means several days or even perhaps weeks of empty search and piles of worthless spoil and desperation. I try to bring no preconceived intentions or ideas to this struggle; if it is to be a process of discovery it must be a dialogue in which I, not knowing, am asking the work, which knows, to answer. When I am making marks, I am watching for a reply. Even the most insignificant unintentional or accidental mark is capable of leaping to life and demanding to be pursued and explored. It is inevitable working in this way each day, mainly with a black ball point pen or a brush and gouache paint, pursuing imagery which is continually evolving, that single images can often only be fully understood when seen in relationship with those from which they evolved and those which they developed into. Because of this, in 1976 I realized that I had to present my work in book form. I had 200 notebooks which were begun in 1964 while studying with Anton Ehrenzweig. I chose sections from these and in 1977/8 I published VULNERABLE SUPPLICANT with an Arts Council Award. Since that time I have published about 300 books chosen from countless paintings and drawings. I work at speed – at speed accidents happen – the “other” within the work, with whom I am in dialogue takes control. Work often appears before I am aware and I can only be grateful for it happening and pursue as thoughtfully and thoroughly as possible the ideas that have been stirred up and tossed about. Each day the most important thing is to be able to touch the emptiness – to make a mark – and to work until I receive a reply.
Artwork
Torn Collages, 2024
After Fusion, 2020
Personal Appearances, 1979
Erupted Dissevered Excluded, 2019
Behind & Beyond, 2022
Vulnerable Supplicant, 1977
Sequences One, Pen drawings on paper, 1979
Phases, Pen drawings and gouache paintings on paper, 2021
Inhabit the Stare, Pen drawings and gouache paintings on paper, 2019
Display & Information, Pen drawings on paper, 2020
Figurehead, Pen drawings on paper, 2019
Ideas towards paintings, c.1968
Ascending & Descending, 2016
Paintings 2004, 2004
Projects and exhibitions
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INSTEAD OF ME22/01/2016 — 17/04/2016 Solo exhibition. 206 books chosen from over 250 published between 1977 and 2015 containing drawings, paintings and texts begun in 1964 when studying with the late Anton Ehrenzweig and continuing to the present. A sequence of 10 drawings from KEPT, published in 2013, was also exhibited. Dr. Christopher A. Taylor, Deputy Head, School of Fine... [Read more] |
Gallery 1, The Tetley, Leeds | Details |