Glass

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 2 Marsham Street

Random colours painted on canvas in patchwork style glow from this striking composition by David Austen. Its arrangement of colours evokes panes of stained glass or coloured mosaic tiles. Austen's painting technique is often lengthy, involving layering paint on to a heavy foundation of gesso (white pigment over which colour is applied). The lightness of the gesso illuminates the appearance of the overlaid colours, creating a fresco-like appearance.

David Austen was born in Harlow in 1960 and studied both at Maidstone College of Art and the Royal College of Art, London. His work is represented in many important collections including the Tate Collection; The British Council; Arts Council, and numerous international private collections. He has received major commissions in London and Cairo and has curated several exhibitions including Exodus at Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, in 2004. His work has been included in group exhibitions such as Take it from Here, at Sunderland Museum and Art Gallery (2006) and About Vision: New British Painting in the 1990s, at Museum of Modern Art Oxford (1997). In spring 2007 he had a major solo exhibition at Milton Keynes Gallery.

Places

Subjects

square, abstract

Materials & Techniques

canvas, flax, oil, gesso, oil painting

Artist

David Austen (1960 - )

Title

Glass

Date

2001

Medium

Oil and gesso on flax canvas

Dimensions

height: 167.50 cm, width: 152.20 cm, depth: 5.50 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Anthony Reynolds Gallery, August 2001

Inscription

verso, on stretcher tl: D. Austen 2001 verso, on canvas tr: DAVID AUSTEN 2000

Provenance

Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London

GAC number

17620