Alan Green, Monoprints & Paintings
This selection of recent paintings and monoprints by Alan Green indicates a dramatic new evolution in his work. Moving away from the previous use of linear bands and blocks of colour Green’s new works exploit the use of circular shapes or discs. The size and placement of the discs on the picture plane is determined by their role within the composition: sometimes stabilising, sometimes agents of activity advancing towards each other in groups or breaking out beyond the confines of the picture field.
This new development, as Alan Green explains in his introduction to the exhibition catalogue, arose from his work on monoprints that he made between late 1999 and 2000 of which 24 are exhibited. The introduction of collage elements and the exposure of underlying layers through surface perforation led to the disc paintings. With characteristic and pronounced use of texture the paintings are built up in multiple layers with the discs sometimes sitting proud o“n the surface and sometimes formed by omissions in the paint revealing the differing layers beneath. Green forms the paintings with the aid of acetate stencils hand-made without geometric implements. The effect contributes to the powerful sense of organic tactility so prevalent in his work.
Alan Green was born in London in 1932 and has a long association with Annely Juda Fine Art having had his first exhibition here in 1970. He has had one-man exhibitions throughout Europe, Japan and the United States including Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany and Tate Gallery, London. His work was exhibited at Documenta VI, Kassel, in 1977 and examples of his prints and paintings are held in major public collections worldwide, notably Tate Gallery, London, Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York.
This exhibition offers an exciting opportunity to see his new work and to understand the interrelation between his printing and painting techniques.
