ALBERT IRVIN – FIDELIO
2012-08-13Irvin has chosen Fidelio as the title, for a number of reasons. There is his fidelity to abstraction, a consistent abstraction in which, over the decades, the artist has been careful to eschew figuration in any form. A S Byatt observed in a text on the artist, ‘It is art about experiencing the world’, adding, about the paintings’ titles ‘They are both arbitrary and not, a kind of notation of his life, street-names of London where his studio is… which have a resonance of their own’. Irvin has often referred to the grounding of his practice in the material circumstances of his own life. In an interview given in Dublin, Irvin said : “I don’t want to depict or describe appearances – I want to make a kind of painting that is about the world rather than of it.”
Fidelio is a musical evocation, echoing Albert Irvin’s love for and great knowledge of the classics. Synthesising the proximity of music to painting, Irvin comments: “Music brought me to the realisation that it was possible to say what it feels like to be a human being without having to paint noses and feet.”
Opposite – Fidelio, 2012
Exhibition runs through to September 1st, 2012
Gimpel Fils
30 Davies Street
London
W1K 4NB
