Personification
30th Jul 2002 - 8th Sep 2002
A major survey of the work of Clare Shenstone.
 Francis with blue eyesClare Shenstone |
 Francis (cloth head)Clare Shenstone |
 Lady SainsburyClare Shenstone |
Throughout her training as a painter, Shenstone had explored new materials and pushed her work into three-dimensional form, creating modelled �cloth heads� that were strikingly life-like and animated. Shenstone comments that people find them both amusing and unnerving � they change expression dramatically when lit from behind, from the side or when washed with natural light. Like the real people they depict, these cloth heads also have a tendency to change, to age very subtly, with the passing of time. It was these works which caught the eye of the artist Francis Bacon, who purchased one from Shenstone�s degree show in 1979. From this encounter, an invitation to paint his portrait was accepted by Shenstone, and for the next three years, over fifty studies of the artist in oil, gouache, pastel, cont� crayon and pencil were produced.
From an early career as an actress, Shenstone has been acutely aware of faces as masks. She creates a number of images of each sitter, often from different angles and at different moments. This intense study results in portraits which offer more than just a physical likeness of the sitter. Her subjects include both commissions and chance encounters.
Some portraits shown in this exhibition are of longstanding and close friends, while others are of entirely fictional figures. However, the artist refers to all her paintings as if, for her, the people she depicts are fully alive. This sense of intimacy is revealed particularly in the very tiny works. In contrast to her large scale portraits, these images invite the viewer to look closely and observe the way in which Shenstone has been able, by pushing around small blobs of paint, to create such animated characters.
This exhibition has been made possible by the generosity of Lady Sainsbury.
A catalogue is available from Cornerhouse Publications.
