Keith Murdoch

To coincide with my new-found studio practice optimism, and to some extent my new life in general, I’ve updated this tired old site. (more…)

Just recently I’ve been updating an artists’ group website where statements are aplenty and the ‘better’ artists often share the belief that statements are difficult and therefore unnecessary. One in particular cited George Bazelitz’s belief that painting is difficult enough so why justify it with a statement that can never adequately convey what’s going in the painting. I too have struggled to ‘word’ what my paintings are about – I create them out of passion and sincerity yet feel slightly fraudulent when I’m faced with constructing an emotive and descriptive statement about my work or my activity. However, I continue to struggle – I don’t wholly believe that the painting is enough – I think it is through the lack of understanding of written language that artists struggle to convey their thoughts – or at least struggle to translate their thoughts from the comfort zone of the visual language of their choice to the very different and seemingly unaccommodating constraints of written word. The painter Francis Bacon is a good example of an artist who had little trouble conveying his every painterly emotion through speech – he is perhaps rare in the art world in that he could ‘talk a good painting’ and on occasion, actually paint one. But for me the archetypal artist/talker has to be Patrick Heron. He was a painter I always had a lot of time and respect for, and equally so as an art critic. He too championed the belief that paintings are about painting rather than talking – however he presented his arguments so eloquently that it suggested to me that art can and should be talked about and artists should develop the skills to translate their creation into some form of written or spoken word. When having a few drinks with any artist, they will invariable at some point begin to talk about their work. They will talk with passion, they will use a combination of words and pained expressions to not only describe their processes and beliefs, but also to justify those beliefs. All I ask is that artists write these spoken words down and they will have a statement that compliments their work, adds to the enjoyment of their work, or in some cases makes allowances for the ‘transitional’ nature of the work. I must reiterate that I am a painter who struggles with statements, currently my statements are becoming slightly poetic renditions of my thoughts and feelings, this isn’t ideal but it’s a start. I’m also a lover of art and a viewer of art and I for one enjoy not only experiencing the work itself, but learning about where the work has come from, why it has been produced and why it might have been produced in that particular way. Artistic choices have been made, problems have been solved, there is a reason why the artwork has been produced – it might have been an accident, but that accident would never have happened had the artist not been working towards some end, therefore there is something to write about.