Untitled

Location

Country: Singapore
City: Singapore
Place: British High Commission

Rust-coloured precisely-contoured painted areas stand out against a glossy white ground in this minimalist painting by Robert Holyhead. The artist has described how, in the process of creating a painting, he ‘exaggerates or outlines the brush marks as a stand-alone activity on a surface. … It is the poise between different forms and a sort of fluidity between one form and the sharpness of another. … both precise yet slightly awkward at the same time’. His paintings are neither representational nor purely abstract; they ‘present both a type of personal language and some familiarity with the world’. In 2009, Holyhead was commissioned by the Government Art Collection to make a site-specific work for the offices of the UK Permanent Representation to the European Union in Brussels. Holyhead hand painted blocks of colour which he then transferred onto the glass panels in the reception and first floor windows.

Born in Trowbridge, Robert Holyhead lives and works in London. He studied at Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University (BA Hons, Fine Art, Painting 1993–96) and at the Chelsea School of Art and Design (MA Fine Art, Painting, 1996–97). From 2005–10 he undertook a Live/Work residency at Acme Studios, part of the Fire Station Project, Programme 3, supported by the Arts Council, England. In 2018, he undertook a residency at SoART in Austria and was a finalist for the 25th Anniversary Visual Arts Awards.

Places

Subjects

abstract

Materials & Techniques

canvas, oil, oil painting

Artist

Robert Holyhead (1974 - )

Title

Untitled

Date

2010

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

height: 112.50 cm, width: 74.00 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Karsten Schubert, November 2010

Inscription

none

Provenance

Karsten Schubert, London

GAC number

18358