Mid period paintings

In the Exhibition Catalogue for ‘Fable and Fantasy’ (six realists of the unreal, Adrienne Craddock, Elisabeth Frink, Karolina Larusdottir, Ana Maria Pacheco, Paula Rego and Gerda Roper) Peter Suchin, Critic in Residence for the 1996 Year of the Visual Arts wrote the following excerpts:

“The work of the artists collected together here ultimately coheres as a series of approaches to what one might term ‘unreal realism’, a selection of ways of picturing the world from the points of view of the fabulous, the mythical, the near-surreal or fantastic.

“It is not my intention here to reduce such a diversity to a few formulaic traits, restricting what is plural to a few neat strategies of artistic practice. I propose, rather, to give some suggestions – and they are only that – as to how the numerous works in this display might be productively read.

“Sometimes a pretty, sleek or sweet surface can deceive. Gerda Roper’s muted colours and dissolving compositions are palimpsests of deception in ways that only a close inspection might uncover. Scintillating splashes and patches of paint that may at first glance appear to develop into pleasant reveries, seeming daydreams, are in fact the medium in which an altogether darker reflexive texture is held. Titles act as clues to guide the viewer towards these deeper themes. These works operate at the fringe of the figurative. Mallarme’s remark that one should ‘paint not the thing but the effect it produces’ comes to mind.”

Peter Suchin, Critic in Residence for the 1996 Year of the Visual Arts