SCHUBERT |
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CONTEMPORARY |
Dale Frank
New Works
Official Opening
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“The thoughts, the marks you make in silence can be the most powerful of all Mafia.” i
Over his 30 working years Dale Frank
has worn many hats and as often as not, simultaneously: painter, draughtsman,
sculptor, photographer, film maker and performance artist. Continuing to define
new ground between minimalist, conceptual and expressive conventions, his
recent paintings present as deep spatial fields - sumptuously coloured and very
glossy. The epic scale and intention of these works promotes a wonderfully
immersive environment. Akin to the film medium, they have a power to completely
absorb the viewer’s consciousness.
As in the tradition of romantic
landscape painting, the swirling tides of tinted varnish seem to convey the
very forces of nature. Although the titles themselves encourage such
associations, Frank rejects literal translation and any notion of pictorial
sentimentality. In an interview with Serena Bentley late last year, he
elaborated: “People read things into them. There is an
electricity when they try to connect them [the titles] to the
paintings... you get a current going between the title, the viewer and the
work.”
Independent of literal meaning, these
huge plasma-like abstractions confront the senses. The
uncontrolled look is deceptive. Dale Frank is investigating the very essence of
painting itself. In the 90’s he began experimenting with commercial varnishes
and the complex chemical reactions that occur when certain pigments are added.
Ever alert to new creative possibilities, he observed at least twelve responses
that he was eventually able to replicate at will. For Dale Frank, colour in its
liquid form is “a living entity”. Poured onto the horizontal canvas surface,
luminous pools of pigmented varnish immediately begin to resist and coalesce;
the viscosity and drying times determined by seasonal temperatures and humidity.
As further layers are added, the angle and direction of the varnish flows are
controlled by the manipulation of wedges and blocks placed beneath the
painting. “It is a totally hands on and cerebral way of painting,”
declares Frank. “Much more intense than a half-centimetre
brush and tubes of oil paint. The process can take up to 24 hours
where I have to be permanently standing over the painting, constantly
considering every minute aspect.”
Born 1959, Dale Frank is generally
regarded as having the longest CV of any Australian artist. His artistic career
began in 1975 when the then 16 year old was awarded the Red Cross Art Award by
John Olsen. Just five years later, and displaying a confidence beyond his
years, Frank had solo exhibitions in
i. Excerpt from an email to Ashley
Crawford for ART WORLD magazine, Issue 1, 2008
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