Untitled, 2003
Oil on Canvas 172 x 137 cm
Tate Britain, London
22 October 2005
Exhibiting at the Tate for the second time in 3 years this time as part of the Turner Prize shortlist. Whist I enjoyed her exhibition immensely, it was no surprise it didn’t win.
She works within traditional categories of painting - still life, landscape, the figure and portraiture - each with a different technique. I found this exhibition interesting on a number of levels. The hang itself was something I was very conscious of given the different categories of painting and the wide variety of scale. Although Carnegie works in series, returning to the same subject but varying her approach slightly each time, in all her shows I have seen she likes to exhibit a mix of subjects, styles and techniques together. I felt there was to many things going on and that her multiple 'voice' was further fragmented by the hang - I didn't get a sense of dialogue between the work.
I think all of her paintings have a melancholic air, but I was particularly taken with this large painting of two rather barren trees in what looks like an atrium or some other kind of public place. I don't know the source, but I assume it is from a photograph, as I have found no reference to her working in situ from life. The trees are off-centre to the right, balanced by the weight of shadow on the left-hand side and cropped severely by the edge and top of the canvas, suggesting photographic source material.
The colour is predominately two tones of an "apple" green for the background of light and shadow that are combined with dark browns and blacks on the trees. It is this choice of colour that gives me a sense of melancholy as I contemplate this inner sanctuary.
The paint is quite thin and the brushwork in the shadows on the wall reminded me of Munch - probably because I had just seen his work. The brushy strokes are sketchy but confident and most importantly, extremely effective the way she broadly scumbles one semi-transparent layer over another. Thicker paint is used for the trunk and branches of the trees but they are also painted with broad definite strokes. Creates a sense of space.
I general I found her work full of ideas for experimentation with paint and food for thought on the subject of tension between the materiality of the paint and what it depicts.
According to the critic Barry Schwabsky, writing in Artforum magazine: 'Carnegie turns back toward the fusty hues of old pictures rotting beneath their own varnish, not to reclaim some former solidity but all the better to verify her forms' ultimate evanescence.'
©blackdog 2009