Claire Burke @ Broomhill
Claire Burke
We have asked the artist to provide a statement about their work, an edited personal history, and a selection of exhibitions and commissions. The content here is entirely their words and selection. Works illustrated here have been chosen by the artist.
The works shown on this page are not necessarily on display at Broomhill.
The Artist Speaks
Claire's work has strong links with the ideas of Clement Greenberg, the philosophy of abstract expressionism being fundamental to her ideology. An unusual approach among young British artists today.
The luminous colours and mysterious rectangles create an aura of presence, deliberately still and quiet, a meditative play with space, tone, intensity and subtle hues.
The paint is painstakingly applied to the canvas, taking many weeks to produce as multiple layers of colour move towards a finished form.
'What one actually sees is full of spontaneity and developing movement that is almost musical and which also conveys a sense of the spaciousness of landscape.
Her latest work in particular seems to float free of the canvas.
'This is Art on which the eye dwells on long and lingeringly but which also gives food for thought.' • Dr Nick McAdoo (associate researcher in aesthetics, Open university)
Claire's work has been recognised by many prestigious galleries, critics and collectors worldwide, with exhibitions in the west end of London and America being highlights of this last year.
Claire's paintings have an introspective quality; textural surfaces are juxtaposed with smooth planes and grazes in the surfaces, creating a spatial ambiguity and dynamic reminiscent of abstract expressionism and the ideas of Clement Greenberg. The work evades categorisation here however since although the artist has a strong desire to control meaning, there is a deference to post structuralism and deconstruction in that the subject invites indeterminate interpretation.
There is an integrity within the mark making and a quality of line attained by a measured, controlled approach, marks are excavated from the existing paint surface rather than being superimposed upon it. An attention to the quality and detail of surface achieved by the repeated application and removal of many layers of paint results in much of the content of the work being the visible evidence of the process itself. The work 'becomes' which references itself, it opens and closes space.
'Aesthetic value and meaning are no longer seen to be the products of the operations of a system, and have become fleeting and unstable phenomena, which can never be recaptured or even properly communicated. They must always be considered to be in the process of 'becoming', instead of being directed towards a prearranged goal.' • Stuart Sim
The square holds a mythical symbolism within the history of modern painting; it is also a rejection of the precise definition of the aesthetic as described by the Fibbonacci Series or the Golden Section. Each work deliberately relates mathematically to the square, informed by the work of Robert Ryman and Josef Albers among others - exploring the tensions created within via the demarcation of the space.
The artist aims further to constrain interpretation by maintaining a severely selective palette, essentially monochromatic and either positive or negative, colour is restricted to hues relating to the materials with which the work is constructed i.e. the wood and linen, the work again referencing itself. The intention is to control the potentially decorative, distracting aspect of colour, to emphasise the subject of the work.
A particular management of space, light, colour and texture within a rigid self-referential structure, in order to provoke a subtle resonance, eliciting an arresting, beatific but deliberately detached relationship with the viewer, unique to the work of this artist.
The sum of these factors is an underlying sense of internal space. The apparent certainty of the modernist imagery and precision of the picture planes create a relentless, repetitive architecture, undermined in an acutely reserved manner by the more organic surfaces and paint effects.
This becomes more apparent upon closer examination, conspiring to direct the audience towards a state of contemplation. An enigmatic sense of presence is evoked that gives rise to a meditative quality, a serenity and tranquillity, in dissonance with a sense of disturbance of the surface plane of the painting and the internal space of the viewer.
Jun 91 - Jan 05
Claire's work has traveled to New York for Art New York 2003 and received acclaim at Art 2003 and 2004 in London.
The artist curated an annual exhibition at The Gallery on Cork Street, W1.
Claire has also shown at The Newlyn Orion Gallery with Sandra Blow and Sir Terry Frost as an influential young Cornish artist and is an elected life member of Newlyn Art Society.
Claire has exhibited for CCA galleries, Thompson's Fine Art, Gallery One O Two, Gallery One, Thomas Coreman Fine Art, The Studio Gallery, Studio 3, Room and Art, Chosen Art, Numasters.com, The Hutson Gallery, The Queenstown Gallery, Lemon Street Gallery, Karen Taylor Fine Art, Will Ramsey and The Art Movement, Roman Black and MC Art.
Prints and reproductions are available from Indigo Art and Plinth.
She has been invited to participate in well over 200 group exhibitions and is to be found exhibiting in London on a regular basis.
Having graduated from St Martin's College of Art over a decade ago her work has reached over 15 countries worldwide and is in many private and public collections, she has attracted acclaim from British and international critics alike.
