Pictures at an Exhibition

Our Arts Correspondent Reports:-

We are a multi-talented lot in KCC (myself excluded - I am strictly a one-trick pony, and not a very good one of those) and in the creative arts, Bernard C is our standard bearer.  An exhibition of his work was recently on display at Rugby Art Gallery, and as regrettably few of his club colleagues could seemingly be stirred to make the short trip to view his work, I thought I would give you a brief taste of what you missed.

I won't pretend to be the most sensitive when it comes to appreciating art, but I know what I like, and like isn't exactly the word that springs to mind where Bernard's work is concerned. If you want fluffy kittens, or waiters dancing on the beach, look away now, because Bernard's vision is concerned with rather darker matters. No wait, make that considerably darker matters.  The exhibition was presented under the title "Colour Radicals", and Bernard's accompanying Artist's Statement gives a clear signpost that we can expect to be both unsettled and challenged. (I know I was!)

"The selection of paintings is from a current series of work exploring an imagined collapse of the normal with unexpected results. Each image can be likened to a theatrical event, where the props are caught in a moment of destruction or drama. Yet that same moment yields a surprising contrast. Colour emerges from, ignites or lights this virtual stage. These visual metaphors touch on ideas of dystopia, while at the same time releasing the beauty of colour as an emancipatory radical energy."

So if you are sitting comfortably, prepare to be shaken out of that complacency.

I am immensely impressed by Bernard's work, but I can't say I would want to have any of it on my living room wall. I find it far too disturbing for that.  This is powerful stuff, and those like me who in our advancing years have retreated to a smaller, largely self-contained/private world, will naturally shy away from confronting the dramatic/cataclysmic events presented in Bernard's art. But thank goodness there is one amongst us who, at an age when he could be excused for resorting to jigsaw puzzles or daytime TV, has the energy and vision to produce such striking images. I think I would call these paintings loud, not just because of their striking colours, but because they demand your attention so forcefully it almost seems as though they are shouting at you.

Whatever's happening here, it is not going to end well!

But behind that forceful element, and the accompanying sense of motion/change/drama, Bernard also captures a still/precise moment amongst the chaos - and it is that which I find particularly disturbing, because its a moment when bad things are happening, but which heralds even worse to come. Cheerful stuff, eh?

Apologies to Bernard if I have massively misrepresented his vision. But after all, the views expressed here are those of the reviewer not the artist!!

Portrait of the Artist as a not so Young Man

And to see more of Bernard's work, visit his website.