Beschreibung:

Nevill Johnson (1911-1999) The Family Oil on board, 61 x 81cm (24 x 32'') Signed, inscribed & dated '53 verso Exhibited: ''Summer Exhibition'', Victor Waddington Galleries, July 1953, Cat. No. 20; International Hotel, Bray, 1954; ''A Celebration of Irish Modernism'', The Ava Gallery, Clandeboye, June - September 2011, Cat. No. 22; and ''Gerard Dillon - Art and Friendships'' Exhibition, Adams, Dublin, July 2013 and The Ava Gallery, Clandeboye, August 2013, Cat. No. 68 Literature: ''Irish Art and Modernism'' by Dr. S.B. Kennedy,p.139; Baird's Irish Price Index 1991, front cover illustration; ''One Hundred Years of Irish Art'', by Eamon Mallic (Ed.) p.176, illustrated p.177; and ''Gerard Dillon, Art and Friendships'', illustrated p.80 Painted in 1953, 'The Family' is one of a small series of work in which Johnson used the subject of circus performers; these other paintings are only know from contemporary photographs that survived in the artist's collection. In their formal treatment and their mood these performers are clearly inspired by Picasso, whose work Johnson had admired since first seeing it in Paris in 1936, rather than Jack Yeats, who also used the narrative and symbolic qualities of the circus in his work. The highly abstracted and simplified depiction of the figures endows them with a sense of massiveness and volume that ensures they still retain presence and identity. The sophistication and skill of the painting is remarkable and sets Johnson apart from his contemporaries in Ireland. He maintains a tension between the flatness of the picture surface and the illusion of depth, using small, repeated but non-descriptive flat passages set against each other to suggest recession, while the heavy surface, which appears to have plaster or another element mixed into the oil, maintains its two-dimensionality. Within the limited palette, colour is used to make visual connections throughout the painting rather than in any naturalistic manner; for example the strong blue of the boy's shorts relates to the blue triangle at the top of the small tent on the right of the composition. 'The Family' is very much a painting of its time. Keith Vaughan, William Scott and Louis le Brocquy had all used the family group to express the physical hardships and metaphysical despair of the post-war era. Yeats had increasingly seen the circus as representing the same alienation and dispossession in its wandering, vulnerable life and it also clearly has associations with the millions of starving and homeless people who wandered across Europe in the aftermath of the war, having been forced to leave behind their way of life. Johnson's painting contains all these elements, but it also has a grace and sense of nostalgia that enriches its mood beyond simple angst. He lived very much as an outsider and admired the life of people who used their skills and wit to survive, without allowing themselves to be constrained by the institutions of society. While it is sad that no other paintings from this series appear to have survived to allow us a clearer understanding of Johnson's work and thinking at this time, it does add to the significance of this work and draws attention to his unusually complex reaction to events and art in Europe. Dickon Hall September 2013 Nevill Johnson (1911-1999) The Family Oil on board, 61 x 81cm (24 x 32'') Signed, inscribed & dated '53 verso Exhibited: ''Summer Exhibition'', Victor Waddington Galleries, July 1953, Cat. No. 20; International Hotel, Bray, 1954; ''A Celebration of Irish Modernism'', The Ava Gallery, Clandeboye, June - September 2011, Cat. No. 22; and ''Gerard Dillon - Art and Friendships'' Exhibition, Adams, Dublin, July 2013 and The Ava Gallery, Clandeboye, August 2013, Cat. No. 68 Literature: ''Irish Art and Modernism'' by Dr. S.B. Kennedy,p.139; Baird's Irish Price Index 1991, front cover illustration; ''One Hundred Years of Irish Art'', by Eamon Mallic (Ed.) p.176, illustrated p.177; and ''Gerard Dillon, Art an