An Evocative Exhibit in Newcastle, England
For those traveling to England this summer, and staying in a Newcastle hotel, the Baltic Museum is a “must see” site. The museum has no permanent collection of works, but houses traveling shows and is becoming one of the most innovative and exciting locations in the world of modern and contemporary art. Of the shows running throughout the summer, one of the exhibits currently on, is that of the work of painter and writer Harland Miller, running from May 22 to July 19, 2009. The exhibit is titled “Don’t Let the Bastards Cheer You Up”. This is a series of montage and paintings that were adapted and created for this show at the Baltic specifically. They are taken from a previous body of work, “Bad Weather Paintings”. Miller used the covers of old books from the publishing house Penguin, and reproduced the images, and then titled them to fit in his world view, that of the region in which he grew up, northeastern England.
His paintings reference abstractionists work from America and the expression of German painters. They fuse with those who love the written word, the literature of life stories, and the paint required to create the images that give voice to the text. He infuses the British world of pop art with the idea of a worn out paper-back novel, giving the viewer a sense of nostalgia regardless of whether or not they have read the particular books referenced in his paintings. There is tragedy and comedy in Miller’s work, in the paintings themselves and the titles for those paintings.
One of his most evocative series of painting is one that is based on a billboard in West Yorkshire. In an attempt to apprehend a serial killer, the Yorkshire Police Department had a billboard painted in 1978. The Yorkshire Ripper not only wreaked havoc but the case surrounding the subject did as well. Letters and tapes sent to the department, were considered hoaxes…and only recently have the police apprehended the man who sent those messages. Miller creates works based on the samples of Wearside Jack’s letters, creating a social commentary, or observation rather. Dark, yet humorously insightful…these works will tug at the “brain-strings” while causing the ‘heart-strings’ to wonder.
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- Beckhamwatch: England’s Hero?
- Govinda Azad, Painting Clouds in Nepal
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