Press and Editorial
BRAM BOGART
25 August 2009Bill Gregory
» View BRAM BOGART exhibition
Annandale Galleries are pleased to announce the first solo exhibition to our knowledge in Australia of the work of BRAM BOGART. The show coincides with the exhibition INTENSELY DUTCH at the Art Gallery NSW (June 5th ? August 28th) that features some of BOGART?S work.
BRAM BOGART has had nearly seventy-five solo exhibitions, including numerous landmark museum exhibitions since 1943. Most of these shows have been in Europe, Scandinavia and the USA so he has made his influence felt over a wide area of the post war art world. He has been associated with a number of the ?Cobra? movement artists such as Karel Appel and Asgar Jorn but declined to formally join the group as he felt they were too committed to coincidence and impulsiveness. As a young man he was influenced by the Belgian expressionist Constant Permeke and Vincent Van Gogh but attracted by the French landscape he spent 1946-50 in the South of France and moved to Paris in 1950. In 1957 BOGART aligned himself with Tachism, a European movement often compared to American abstract expressionism. However, despite his connections with these sorts of groups what stands out with BOGART is his individual style that is difficult to pigeonhole.
It was in the 1960?s that BOGART finally developed a medium allowing him to produce paintings that was utterly original in it?s materials and has become his signature ever since, regardless of the progressions. The medium is a concrete-like slurry that the artist made by combining linseed oil, stand oil, dry pigments and mortar ? the formula for which is still a closely guarded secret ? and allows him to emphasize colour, surface, gesture and process in an instinctive manner. The result is very much a painting as object; works that are guided by the principles of painting but also encompass the effect of sculpture and draws out the best aspects of each medium.
BRAM BOGARTS art historical references ranging from the late romanticism of Gustave Moreau via Tachism, Clifford Still and Robert Ryman has produced a body of work that has been highly influential on post war abstraction. Saul Ostrow wrote that ?by abandoning the specificity identified with painting?s historicized process? he has come up with works that are primarily ?an object in the world? or in the term used by the late Donald Judd ? ?the Specific Object?. As a result, BOGART has also had an enormous influence (always the measure of an artist?s ultimate place in the art-historical continuum) on artists such as Eva Hesse, Keith Sonnier and even some of the so-called ?YBA? (Young British artists) artists working today such as Jason Martin.
The paintings in the Annandale show are relatively small in format with the largest just under 60 cm square. However, unlike some artists whose work suffers when the scale changes, the works retain the monumentality of the large work that may be seen at the ART Gallery NSW exhibition. The paintings are medium/small in format but large in scale. They pack a big punch and in addition to stimulating our intellectual sensibilities have a strong graphic and emotional impact. The works are felt in the body and through the screens of our emotions as well as the mind.
Do not miss this opportunity to engage in depth with the art of BRAM BOGART for the first time in Australia.
Annandale Galleries are pleased to announce the first solo exhibition to our knowledge in Australia of the work of BRAM BOGART. The show coincides with the exhibition INTENSELY DUTCH at the Art Gallery NSW (June 5th ? August 28th) that features some of BOGART?S work.
BRAM BOGART has had nearly seventy-five solo exhibitions, including numerous landmark museum exhibitions since 1943. Most of these shows have been in Europe, Scandinavia and the USA so he has made his influence felt over a wide area of the post war art world. He has been associated with a number of the ?Cobra? movement artists such as Karel Appel and Asgar Jorn but declined to formally join the group as he felt they were too committed to coincidence and impulsiveness. As a young man he was influenced by the Belgian expressionist Constant Permeke and Vincent Van Gogh but attracted by the French landscape he spent 1946-50 in the South of France and moved to Paris in 1950. In 1957 BOGART aligned himself with Tachism, a European movement often compared to American abstract expressionism. However, despite his connections with these sorts of groups what stands out with BOGART is his individual style that is difficult to pigeonhole.
It was in the 1960?s that BOGART finally developed a medium allowing him to produce paintings that was utterly original in it?s materials and has become his signature ever since, regardless of the progressions. The medium is a concrete-like slurry that the artist made by combining linseed oil, stand oil, dry pigments and mortar ? the formula for which is still a closely guarded secret ? and allows him to emphasize colour, surface, gesture and process in an instinctive manner. The result is very much a painting as object; works that are guided by the principles of painting but also encompass the effect of sculpture and draws out the best aspects of each medium.
BRAM BOGARTS art historical references ranging from the late romanticism of Gustave Moreau via Tachism, Clifford Still and Robert Ryman has produced a body of work that has been highly influential on post war abstraction. Saul Ostrow wrote that ?by abandoning the specificity identified with painting?s historicized process? he has come up with works that are primarily ?an object in the world? or in the term used by the late Donald Judd ? ?the Specific Object?. As a result, BOGART has also had an enormous influence (always the measure of an artist?s ultimate place in the art-historical continuum) on artists such as Eva Hesse, Keith Sonnier and even some of the so-called ?YBA? (Young British artists) artists working today such as Jason Martin.
The paintings in the Annandale show are relatively small in format with the largest just under 60 cm square. However, unlike some artists whose work suffers when the scale changes, the works retain the monumentality of the large work that may be seen at the ART Gallery NSW exhibition. The paintings are medium/small in format but large in scale. They pack a big punch and in addition to stimulating our intellectual sensibilities have a strong graphic and emotional impact. The works are felt in the body and through the screens of our emotions as well as the mind.
Do not miss this opportunity to engage in depth with the art of BRAM BOGART for the first time in Australia.