John Hurrell – 22 March, 2016

Four paintings, not notably large, spread out, far apart - with a wall each. Each one about light, not (say) paint. Light on window sills, or frames and latches, or stair steps - light that can blind you and dissolve forms. Or the opposite (through withholding): accentuate solidity. Play with (and crank up) volume and mass.

Andrew Barber has a history of interest in grids with his tartan paintings and blank canvas configurations. So extending from grids to the regular frames of a glass window is no big leap. And anyway, radiating light is itself a natural consequence of the tonal attributes of colour and the viscous properties of paint.

The four paintings vary. Two are of windows with wooden and metal frames, one is of a sliding glass door and the other is of a staircase. The window and ranch slider paintings feature pale grey ‘blank’ exteriors of natural light, with no depiction of outside objects or external buildings. One window is open. The light enters and rakes across the exposed green (metal?) fittings. The other window is shut. Its diffuse light enters through the glass and glows upon the brown wooden sill.

With the sliding glass door painting the dominant feature is the hanging Venetian blinds. The light pours in through the suspended horizontal blades (which change in their perspectival alignment as they descend), and intensifies as the blade edges grow thinner.
Barber‘s comparatively simple painting of uncarpeted steps exploits dark shadow for dramatic sculptural effect. The deep brown staircase looks like stacked boxes or solid wooden beams.

With four works on stretchers, this is a restrained show for Barber, an artist who is used to putting huge paintings onto ceilings, covering the floor, or extending walls. His interest in light and its properties though is no surprise: most painters have such preoccupations. However, because of his track record of outdoor landscape images (albeit from realty ads), the interest in architectural fittings and interiors as subject matter seems to be new - although his interest in the craft of house painting is well known too.

His presentation makes you look closely at the Hopkinson Mossman venue: its windows, its stairs, its walls, its illumination from natural light. The site specific details. What hypothetical Barber canvases might be and do.

John Hurrell

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