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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
Antony Bream:
Exhibition - An Indian Journey
Verdict: Dramatic evocation of a timeless place
London - Indar Pasricha - April 03
10-30 April 03 - Indar Pasricha Fine Arts, 22 Connaught Street, W2 2AF, tel 020 7724 9541. M-Sat 11-6. Free.
Tony Bream's a boundless enthusiast of London's fringe theatre - in his own words, 'art that defines the now'. He was recently described as 'the best young classical portrait painter in Britain today'. Not bad for a lad who's navigating the shores of 60 (though portraitists notoriously live for ages - with several in their 80s, even 90s). In this delightful exhibition, he's fresh back from India, with 42 new paintings.
Here are landscapes, architecture, and blissfully observed groups of people - snapshots from the everyday life of modern India. Many are watercolours of ancient buildings, each alive with light and contemporary observation. Some examples:
'The Fort Jodpur' presents the cadence of the legendary military installation, rippling down the hillside - the umbers of sandstone (and sand) set off by a cerulean sky. The massive historic Hindu fort, 'Chittorgarh', is detailed in two separate views. 'Old Fort, Bundi' continues the theme of armed defence. 'Step Well at Bundi' shows Bream's capacity for strident yet subtle architectural delineation.
Bream sees theatre in everyday life, and his watercolours of markets have a highly dramatic feel. 'Early Morning - Jodhpur', 'Market Stalls at Jodhpur', 'Market, Jodhpur' catch people at work, swirled with tent-cloth and canopies, hunkered down in the sun. They're alive. There's the precision of line and the apparent ease of a cinematic storyboard - evoking atmosphere by acute observation.
'Evening Sunlight, Jodhpur' is one of several detailed landscapes, again using browns with careful variance to convey layers of perspective, and the subtle blues of the Indian sky.
Antony Bream works from a studio in Kensington littered with portraits of gorgeous women - and some fairly shifty blokes (a work in progress is the membership of the Garrick Club - actors, journalists and judges). Sometimes a painting takes a year, maybe two.
At other times he works with immense speed. The current exhibition is from 3 months of travel around India in 2003, returning immediately before its commencement. This is an exhibition alive with freshness, and a great exhuberance.
END
John Park
reviewed 15 April 03 / Indar Pasricha Fine Arts
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
