'Harmonic Sounds' acrylic on canvas. -CONTRIBUTED photo
Sana Rose, Contributor
THE LOBBY of the Hilton Kingston Hotel is once again being used as an exhibition space. This time around the featured artist is painter Alphanso Blake. A small collection of acrylic paintings and prints of the same adorn the walls. As we view, we are immediately confronted with Blake signature style bright colours to the point of neon intensity, impasto highlights and a semi-abstract representation of his subjects that takes its cue from cubism of the early 20th century.
Many of Blake's images are schematic to a large extent but he goes one step further with the fusion of his primary
thematic interests music and the female nude which oftentimes produce anthropomorphic images. In Melody No. 1, Melody No. 2 the female's torso becomes a guitar while non-specific geometric shapes, other musical instruments and musicians form the backdrop for the images. However, the painter's version of the modernist pictorial style does not aim convincingly at the idea of changing or challenging our perception of the real world with multi-faceted viewpoints in keeping with Analytic Cubism developed by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Rather, it seems to be merely a technique used to combine space and image to break with pure representation but avoiding deeper conceptual ideas.
PURE REPRESENTATION
A few landscapes, also part of the show, are the artist's closest attempts at pure representation. The colour temperature is still very hot and we can see some attempts to capture light and space. As with the figures, local colour dominates skin is simply brown, foliage is green and sky is blue.
Colour mixing is avoided and the colours seem to be applied directly from the tube. The intensity of the hues is amplified by the juxtaposition of complementaries mainly blues are placed beside oranges and reds beside greens. Light is interpreted as white or yellow and is applied as impasto. In comparison to the stylised pieces, the landscapes are his weakest works, and while none of his pieces can be said to be purely realistic as even colour intensity illustrates, these scenes are closer to lifelike depictions. With the figures, the more stylised they are, the better as this disguises drawing problems.
INTENT
While Blake has a reasonably good sense of composition and makes attempts at playing with shape and space, we are, however, not able to clearly gauge his intent. In the end, while the
collection is rather small, we remain aware of the possibilities that lie untapped in his paintings. His stylised method of breaking up space and shape could be experimented with further for conceptual depth. In his last major exhibition at a local gallery in December 2003, his style was improved up to that point but this show affirms that it has remained the same since.
His colours, though, have returned to his usual palette one kind of blue, one shade of red etc. unlike the more expansive colour range of the previous show. The earlier signs of growth have given way to well-used formulas.
The exhibition continues until the end of the month.
