JĀNIS AVOTIŅŠ – SINCE THE FOUNDATION
2015-12-14The work of Jānis Avotiņš is sourced from 1950’s Soviet propaganda films, post-war national picture books and photographs of poets, artists and intellectuals in the Soviet Union. His paintings awaken a familiar signifier in the collective memory but neutralize emotion through the articulation of what lays in the absent or invisible part of the canvas, which suggests a kind of void. The subjects themselves are a contradiction: although they have nothing to do with the crimes under communism, they still served as model Soviets photographed for propaganda purposes. He goes towards the images that are the loudest and most aggressive in their solemnity and pathos and identifies them as communist tools to inspire the public.
Central to Avotiņš’ technique is the way paint is applied in thin washes of pale, bleached colour overlaid with small alternating brushstrokes. Isolated forms and figures emerge through omission. Whilst some of the artist’s scenes mimic the look of old, Soviet-era photographs, others recall the contemporary appearance of his hometown. Many scenes seem to be part or wholly imagined, dream-like visions of the past, or slowly reconstructed memories of friends, places, events and situations.
The body of work in Since the foundation has a more expressive and stirring quality, something which was avoided in the past. Beyond the historical atmosphere present in his work, there is a longing under the conditions of the decline of Western culture for a general desire of beauty and hope and the rituals leading to it. Each work is articulated in a way that is both ineffable and timeless, rooted in reality but not existing outside of the picture.
Opposite – Untitled , 2015
Exhibition runs through to February 6th, 2016
Ibid.
27 Margaret Street
London
W1W 8RY
