Euan Macleod exhibition

Press, 20 May 1987, Page 47

Euan Macleod exhibition

An Exhibition of Paintings by Euan Macleod at the Brooke/Gifford Gallery. March 24 to April 14. Reviewed by Penny Orme. Euan Macleod graduated from the Canterbury School of Fine Arts in 1979 and in 1981 he moved to Sydney. He has, however, continued to exhibit his work both here and in Australia. The works in the present exhibition consist mainly of oils on paper apart from one large oil on canvas and a smaller selection of oil pastel drawings. One of the most distinctive stylistic qualities of Macleod’s paintings is his use of broad, sweeping, heavily paint-laden brush strokes and he has certainly developed confid-

ence and skill over this particular technique. The images, created from layers of paint build up a rich impasto surface which creates an over-all sense of energy. Although some strong tonal contrasts give a compositional strength, the colours are generally muted, and several of the works also possess a striking luminosity. The subject matter includes several portraits but mostly the content has depicated motifs from everyday life or objects around the studio, i.e. “Tube,” “Glove,” “Sheet” and “Head on Fabric.” Most of these are endowed with a degree of ambiguity and a disoriented, elusive quality is also conveyed especially in works such as “One

and J 4 heads,” and “Duck in France.” In view of Macleod’s paintings, one is drawn to make comparisons with the German expressionist painter, Rainer Fetting. This artist also uses slashing, supercharged brushwork to convey his enigmatic images, but these have mystic overtones. Fetting’s work is saturated with meaning and content as he considers the destructive nature of the wolfman, of pollution and the ever present nuclear threat. Probably because of the nature of our antipodean society, Macleod’s work appears more quirky than threatening or mystic, although “Glove” could appear as a dismembered limb and the skeleton heads are somewhat ma-

cabre. One feels however that this artist is essentially concerned with the formal elements of how a painting is made and this, of course, is as good an aim for making artworks as any. There is always the danger, however, that without meaningful content, the conviction, intensity, even passion conveyed in the gestural marks could degenerate into a more passionless agitation and become a display of empty technique. Macleod’s artistic development will be worth watching and I recommended viewers to visit this exhibition and draw their own conclusions, as, inevitably, one’s response to such highly expressive works will always be subjective and personal.