Newton, Duncan
Duncan Newton’s philosophy as a painter contended that images can be altered and elaborated in endless combinations, as the artist further develops their own repertoire. His work is derived through a process of trial, error and adaptation before it arrives at a final resolution – which is in fact a deliberate irresolution. Newton considered painting to be unique among other art forms, in that its access is uninhibited by time: ‘Painting, compared with other arts, can be seen instantly. In that is its generosity’.
Thursday, 2001 is from his experimental series Abstract Pictures (1999–2002). The colour palette is subdued – off-white, yellows, browns and black – and both works spill beyond the usual rectangular frame of a painting. Irregular contours mimic the effect of a torn piece of paper; broad brushstrokes loop across the surface of the canvas, along with flurries of intersecting lines and layers, hinting at both conflict and balance, to provoke the question: ‘What am I looking at?’ Thus, these works are about the act of looking and celebrate the act of painting, rather than the conclusion.
- Artwork Details: 237 x 367cm
- Edition:
- Material description: Oil on linen
- Credit line: © Estate of Duncan Newton. Gift of the artist’s estate, 2019. Image courtesy of Estate of Duncan Newton
- Theme:
- Medium: Painting
- Accession number: ACC36/2019