Shaman

Elizabeth Magill (1959 - )

Oil on canvas

2006

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  • About the work
    Location
    Country: Germany
    City: Berlin
    Place: British Embassy
    ‘Shaman’, a painting by Elizabeth Magill is the Featured Work for January. An evocative wintry scene inspired by 18th and 19th century English Romanticism, this contemporary painting immerses us into a mysterious dream-like landscape.
    Tangled branches viewed at twilight obstruct the murky darkness beyond, a space that is punctuated by a subtle veil of yellow spots and blobs. Devoid of landmarks and illuminated by the heightened colour of the sky, this indistinct landscape induces a sense of otherworldliness. Here is a place redolent with the expectation of an untold narrative or event waiting to happen.
    At first glance, the naturalism of ‘Shaman’ seems to be minutely observed, yet closer inspection reveals a series of random, agitated marks on its surface. Working on the floor, Magill physically layers, pours and scrapes paint on to canvas, allowing images to gradually emerge. The inclusion of gashes and blobs of paint prevents a simple interpretation of her work, resulting in paintings which have, as the critic Michael Archer describes, ‘… the all-over feel of Pollock’s drip paintings.’
    Magill’s paintings make oblique references to the glens and coastline of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, remembered from early childhood. Triggered by photographs of landscapes, she also sources and transforms imagery from childhood photographs and newspaper cuttings. Wistful and romantic, her work equally acknowledges historical sublime painting and 1950s kitsch colour-infused landscapes. By endlessly reworking her landscapes, Magill presents an artificially filtered, yet startling view of isolated rural scenes that express the power of nature and the awe and dread it can inspire.
  • About the artist
    Elizabeth Magill had her first major solo exhibition at the Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, in 1990. In the same year she was included in the 'British Art Show', which first introduced many of the most prominent younger British artists to a wider public. She has had solo exhibitions in the UK and internationally including: Southampton City Art Gallery in 1998; Artemis Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York, 2003; and the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, Dublin, in 2003. She has held fellowships at the Tate Gallery, Liverpool and Saarlandisches Kunstlerhaus, Saarbrucken, Germany. Magill is represented in numerous public collections including: the Irish Museum of Modern Art; the Arts Council of England; Southampton City Art Gallery; the British Council; and the National Gallery of Australia.
  • Explore
    Places
    Subjects
    tree, moon, star, robe, shaman
    Materials & Techniques
    canvas, oil, oil painting
  • Details
    Artist
    Elizabeth Magill (1959 - )
    Title
    Shaman
    Date
    2006
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    height: 152.50 cm, width: 182.50 cm
    Acquisition
    Purchased from Anthony Wilkinson Gallery, March 2008
    Inscription
    verso, tl: 'Shaman' 2006 / MAGILL
    Provenance
    Anthony Wilkinson
    GAC number
    18176