Crossed PATHS and OPEN windows
published: Sunday | June 1, 2003
Couple in the Window, acrylic on board. -Norman Grindley photo
Sana Rose, Contributor
THE MUTUAL Gallery is the venue for the collection of paintings titled 'Recent Works' by artist Cecil Cooper. After having served as guest speaker for the previous show, he now offers his work for reflection and scrutiny. A total of 21 pieces on paper and canvas done in acrylic from miniature to large scale are on view, which tell of the artist's preoccupation with music, love, spiritual matters and psychological angst.
The exhibition is dedicated to journalist composer and songwriter Clyde Hoyte, who hails from a genre to which Cooper also belongs. The artist has put up to one the pieces in the show, 'Window I' for a silent auction, the total proceeds of which will go to Mr. Hoyte. Bids are welcome at the gallery up to 3:00 p.m. on June 30. The highest bidder will take the painting home.
The show is nicely presented although some of the frames are either inappropriate as is the case with a few of the pieces on paper or unnecessary with regard to the framed canvases. Cooper's characteristic fluid textured surfaces; outlined stylised figures and warm colour scheme with touches of metallic paint are visible. Never leaving us to doubt for even a minute, his allegiance to representation, he fills his canvases with male and female bodies amid his preferred icons the bird, fish, and horse images that filtered into his work about 10 years ago. The flattened forms are pulled from primed and unprimed canvases, on which paint is dripped, washed, brushed and combed for texture. Where the outlines of the images are softened or non-existent as in 'Last Dance', 'Portrait' and 'Twilight', more agreeable compositions result as the images and the surface form a harmonious image/space and image/texture relationships. One wonders why he abandoned the sensitive lines of his earlier work of the seventies.
Despite confessing his fascination with churches, the artist denies that the images are religious. Crosses, arched windows and a stained glass window effect seen especially in the smallest works seem to contradict him and parallel the music theme in similar proportion. In 'Crossing No. 2', one of the larger canvases, caricatured face and arms emerge from a dark background being pierced by a cross that seems to double as a sword while in 'Window I' a Madonna-like face delineated with scratched lines eclipses the golden light of an arched window. Often aligned with expressionism due to his painterly approach, 'Recent Works' conforms to much of Cooper's customary visual outpourings as it displays his classic oeuvre. There is only one notable exception some of the images are 'tighter' in form more controlled and thought out. With these works one is able to sense a greater level of intimacy between the artist, his work and his work process. In the smallest pieces such as 'Allegro' and 'Nocturne' a slightly different sensibility emerges which points a way forward for the artist's future work if he takes note. The compartmentalised images recall stained glass windows where the figures are fractured into smaller portions with either softened lines. If grouped with pieces on paper such as 'Prophet' and 'Twilight' where a nude body surfaces beneath an embossed flower pattern along with 'Couple in the Window', 'Horse Play' and 'Portrait', these works create an engaging visual interplay of colour, shape and surface, which formally and conceptually leave room for the viewer's imagination, an effect Cooper is not averse to.
The artist declares, "I prefer openendedness in my work so that everyone has varied responses." Cooper has opened windows of possibilities for a way forward from already crossed paths. Will he now yield to their beckoning? The show continues until June 14.
