CHRISTOPHER LE BRUN
Solo exhibition at ARNDT Singapore
January 22 – March 27, 2016
Opening | Friday | January 22, 2016, from 6pm | at ARNDT Singapore
Christopher Le Brun and Matthias Arndt will lead an exhibition walkthrough at 7pm.
ARNDT is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Christopher Le Brun in January 2016.
The exhibition feature new paintings on canvas by the acclaimed UK painter, sculptor, and printmaker in his first-ever show in Singapore.
Le Brun’s characteristic visual process led by the artist’s sense of intuition is indelibly presented in a series of powerful recent paintings art ARNDT Singapore. The highly evocative, spontaneous, subtle nuances and internal rhythms within the paintings are the result of an active working integrated whole generated by Le Brun’s rigorous critical appraisal of the overall image.
Here, the use of color is paramount, bringing into play the physical impulse of painting. As Le Brun reiterates when discussing his working process: “Colour therefore, with its metaphysical and innocence, is paramount.”
Renowned for presenting notions of the Romantic and Symbolic within his practice, Le Brun aims to make visible the irreducible via a poetic sensibility. Within each work, there is an attunement to the rhythms, lyricism, and structures that lie within. For this exhibition Le Brun has asked himself “What is irreducible”. Driven by the “physical imagination” and “sensed presence” within the creation process, this series of new paintings tackle this sphere of intangible enquiry head on.
Recurrent palettes of tarnished reds and oranges, evident in “Clime” (2014), “Siren” (2015) and “Sound” (2015) are juxtaposed against less dominating, reflective pieces located in the soft white and blue brushstrokes of “Swan” (2014) and the blushed, rose and cream hues of “Reign” (2015). The deft brushstrokes of the artist appear in a state of perpetual dance, like musical notes enlivening a musical score. Le Brun states: “I look for painting with the imagery of poetry and the physical presence of music.”
In other pieces, the energy is more conspicuous and rapid. The dense areas of mark making in combination with the revealed vibrant high note greens, pinks, yellows and purples in “Palace” (2015) stand as a counterpoint in the exhibition. Such perspicacious probing of the artist’s chosen medium offers audiences deep experiential insights into the traditional processes of painterly abstraction and its transcendental powers.
VIEW THE FULL EXHIBITION CATALOGUE HERE
CV
Born in Portsmouth and trained at the Slade and Chelsea Schools of Art in London he appeared early on in many group exhibitions, such as the influential Zeitgeist exhibition at the Martin-Gropius Bau, Berlin, and from 1980 on, in many solo exhibitions in Britain, Europe and America. He was a prizewinner at the John Moores Liverpool exhibitions in 1978 and 1980 and worked in Berlin during 1987-88 as guest of the DAAD artist’s programme.
Between 1990 and 2003 he served as a trustee of the Tate and subsequently of the National Gallery, a period which saw his involvement in the radical developments of Tate at Bankside, Liverpool and St. Ives as well as the masterplan and re-development of the east wing of the National Gallery.
In recent years he has been a trustee of the Dulwich Picture Gallery and the Royal (formerly Prince’s) Drawing School, which he helped to establish in 2000. In the same year he was elected Professor of Drawing at the Royal Academy.
Le Brun was elected President of the Royal Academy in December 2011. He is the 26th President since Sir Joshua Reynolds and the youngest to be elected since Lord Leighton in 1878.
ARNDT Singapore
Gillman Barracks
9 Lock Road #03-21
Singapore 108937
Tel. +65 67340775
info@arndtberlin.com
Randian | CHRISTOPHER LE BRUN Solo exhibition at ARNDT Singapore | January 2016
