Leapman, Edwina (1934) – Dense White IV – 1979

Leapman, Edwina (1934)

‘Dense White IV’ – 1979
gesigneerd en gedateerd 79 verso; geannoteerd ‘Untitled IV 79’ verso
acryl op doek
91,5 x 99 cm

Herkomst:
Annely Juda Fine Art, 11 Tottenham Mews, Londen
Particuliere collectie (verworven van bovengenoemde)

Edwina Leapman werd in 1934 geboren in Hampshire, Engeland en studeerde aan de Central School of Arts in Londen. Vanaf de late jaren 50 schilderde ze abstract, geïnspireerd op het minimalisme en abstract expressionisme uit New York. Haar werk is opgenomen in de collectie van het British Museum, Tate Gallery, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney) en Israel Museum (Jeruzalem).

“What interested me in particular in my early paintings of the 60s was to paint in a way that was on the edge of perception. The colour was less particularised in hue and more monochromatic. In the intervening years I gradually moved away from these ideas and began to use colour in a more active way. One of the reasons for this change is to be in darkness as well as light; I choose ways of working that are simple and allow the interplay of formal and contingent elements. The paintings show the process of working – the movement of the brush, the density of paint – and are built up line by line, the apparently random accents gradually coming together to form rhythms that create the particular mood of the painting. There are some contradictory things I try to do within the work: consciously to allow the unconscious, a containment which is open, and a stillness that reaches outward. The colour sensations are used to move the surface of the ground spatially, and this causes perceptual shifts by the colour, making an equal tonality. I feel now that my work is more and more returning to the emotional feel and the limpidity of colour that informed the experiences of my early childhood. These have been with me since the beginning, learning to paint was almost an interruption of being. It has been necessary to forget and discard layers of knowledge, education, and sophistication. For me art is the process of coming back to oneself. To the place one started. To catch the experience in retrospect.” (statement van Edwina Leapman uit 2013)