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BASIL BLACKSHAW NUDES, LOT 109 - 112
Mike Catto has written; ‘The nudes of Basil Blackshaw have a certain air of detachment about them.’ (Art in Ulster 2, 1977, p43).
I disagree with this interpretation because although I can see where such a reading comes from there is too remarkable a
degree of connection evident between artist and model in these nude representations. The sense of distance or detachment
is at odds with the impact of the works. They have been consciously embodied by Blackshaw in this manner. He is a strong
portraitist and is adept at capturing likenesses but his nudes are not executed in this vein. In these it is the figure’s moment
and opportunity to shine through in terms of expression. These nudes (lot 109 - 122) are faceless, nameless, yet paradoxically
full of character. They are collectively reliant on their expressive poses and the artist’s treatment of paint and compositional
structure.
Blackshaw is definite in his approach; “…I want to avoid association with the subject. I want it to be a purely visual experience
for the viewer…I want it to please the eyes rather than bring up associations in the mind. When I paint a nude I don’t want them
to see a girl thinking or sitting, I want it be just a figure. I like the way Baselitz turned his figures upside down, when you see a
man eating an orange, turn it round and it becomes something else. I wish I’d thought of it.” (‘
Afterwords
’, Ferran, 1999, p128).
Brian Ferran has noted; ‘Although his model is before him, his more important associations are the previous twenty paintings
which he has made of the same model…These are densely complex paintings which possess personality and a dynamism of
their own.’ (Ferran, 1999, p122).
The artist has commented; ‘I want to be divorced a bit from the actual subject; not to make a replica but to make an equiva-
lent.’ (McAvera, IAR, 2002). The most insightful and detailed assessment of the artist’s approach, is however, captured by the
person closest to the subject, his life model Jude Stephens; ‘His approach was to create a representative image, almost totally
destroy it, and then recreate it. Within hours or even minutes of my departure, I knew that he would return to the studio and
obliterate the image, for only when I left could he produce the painting for which he strove. In a sense the essence he sought
only existed in his memory. He often apologised about this pattern of thesis, antithesis and synthesis, reassuring me that he
needed me to sit for him even though the resulting work would inevitably meet with rough treatment, because without an
image to destroy there could be no image to recreate.’ (Jude Stephens in Ferran, 1999, p85).
‘Reclining Nude’
has an elemental, almost archaeological feel to it. The figure occupies the composition but in a pose that
suggests movement and a sense of becoming. Her form emerges from the left of the page and stretches back towards the
right. The cut-off composition emphasises the sense of a found or emerging form. Her feet are beyond the confines of the
page as is her left hand. Her facial features see little delineation, her hair is akin to a dark shadow extended behind her head
and indeed her entire form is captured only to the point of sufficient suggestion of presence and not beyond. Nevertheless
the figure does however have a strong manifestation even in this elemental existence. The painting is powerful and dynamic
within its severely limited palette range. It is at once linked to the classical tradition and yet thoroughly modern. ‘Blue Nude’
1985 was painted the same year and it also possesses a power of mastery of the figure. The blue of the title is the dominant
colour with the background a deep midnight blue which casts its hue upon the model.
Marianne O’Kane Boal, April 2017