“Florensky argued against the notion that there is only a single, correct variety of perspectives:the “Renaissance” or “linear” type, first demonstrated by Filipp Brunelleschi in the early fifteenth century, with a single vanishing point. Instead, he insisted that the way of depicting space in medieval Russian icons, such as those by Andrei Rublev, was just as alid. These pictures did not have one fixed vanishing point; they were “polycentred”. By this, Florensky meant that “the composition is constructed as if the eye were looking at different parts of it, while changing its position”. (Gayford, 2021, p.10)
Through my work and research I’ve been exploring distortions of space, perspective and composition and how to integrate them in my painting. Partially the reason for this interest comes from my sketchbook usage, which meant, looking at things directly in the place, instead of using photographs.
“What photograph reproduced to infinity has occurred only once: the Photograph mechanically repeats what could never be repeated existentially. In the Photograph, the event is never transcended for the sake of something else: the Photograph always leads the corpus I need back to the body I see; it is the absolute Particular” (Barthes, 1980, p.4)
By repeatedly sketching the same places, being those either the underground, parks, or the london streets, I was always finding new and interesting things. I looked into the works of artists such as David Hockney, a “space addict” as he calls himself, but also Anthony Green and his distorted depictions of his surroundings, as well as Stanley Spencer, Archibald Motley, Jacob Lawrence and Francys Alÿs. All these artists had very unique ways to work the space and build unique compositions.
Artists and authors
David Hockney
Francys Alys
Jacob Lawrence
Almada Negreiros
Archibald Motley
Anthony Green
Stanley Spencer
Books, exhibitions and others
Barthes, R. (1980) Camera Lucida. London: Vintage
Gayford, M. (2019) Moderns & Mavericks. London: Thame & Hudson
Gayford, M. ; Hockney, D. (2016) A History of Pictures. London: Thames & Hudson
Gayford, M. ; Hockney, D. (2021) Spring Cannot be Canceled. London: Thames & Hudson
Rothenstein, E. (1962) Stanley Spencer. London: Beaverbrooks Newspapers Limited
Powell, R. (2014) Archibald Motley Jazz Age Modernist. Durham: Duke University Press
Lawrence, J. (1974) Jacob Lawrence. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art