Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Julian Bell

"Exercises at Imber"  2004

"Delhi Metro"  2007

"The Skylit Room"

"State Offices, Zadar"

"The Arrest at Nevada Bob's"  1999
Julian Bell is a British painter who enthusiastically embraces representation and narrative and finds plenty of fresh energy in that age old effort. He says he's "interested in the funny things people do on the earth," and that seems like a pretty good summation of his style and subject matter, both of which are widely varied, from landscapes to interiors and figures, depicted in rough gestural drawings or tight realism, rigid formal compositions or looping fish-eyed panoramas. The unifying element through all of it is a fascination with the comically vast range of human behavior and our often bizarre transformation of the landscapes around us. The human world seen through Julian Bell's eyes is neither a horror show, nor is it one of awe and wonder. It may occasionally strike you as one, or neither or both, but ultimately it is simply a fascinating place of unlikely peculiarities. 
Enjoy.

You can see more work at his website: http://www.jbell.co.uk
or at: http://www.stannesgalleries.com/bell.html

Julian Bell is also a writer and author of the recent history of art "Mirror of the World".

I'd like to thank Chester Arnold to pointing me to his work.

No comments:

Post a Comment