Frank Webster

"Office Building, Tokyo"  acrylic on canvas  40" x 60"  2011

"Black Tower and Branches"  acrylic on canvas  40" x 30"  2011

"Plastic Bags"  acrylic on canvas  60" x 80"  2009

"Departure"  acrylic on canvas  86" x 65"  2009

"Black Towers"  acrylic on canvas  72" x 48"  2010

I posted a couple of Frank Webster's early works back when this blog was still pretty new (Jan. 2009). He's been busy since then and a subtle transformation has taken place. His work, which had always taken a minimalist approach to post-industrial landscapes, has added a brooding and melancholy atmosphere. In his own statement he writes that "the sharp juxtaposition of technology and romanticism are evocative of the moment — and environment — in which we find ourselves presently." It's very much a modern aesthetic and yet it reminds me of the romantic landscapes of the 18th and 19th century in which artists depicted the dramatic ruins of antiquity. Those artists were, in some sense, comparing their rising culture and civilization to one just as grand but long vanished. It was a Momento Mori for the ambitions of their time. We lost sight of that humility over the next two centuries but now it returns. What Frank Webster captures here, is our own current sense of existence in the twilight of greatness. Our futures are no longer filled with rocket travel and flying cars. We see apocalypse everywhere. But there's no sense of horror in his work. It is more subtle and probably more accurate than that. It depicts instead, the somber, maybe even nostalgic beauty of a gradual fading and slow decline. Perhaps our culture will end not with a bang, nor even a whimper, but something more akin to a long wistful sigh...
You can see more at his website: www.fwebster.com