Untitled

Robert Holyhead (1974 - )

Oil on canvas

2010

Share this:

© Robert Holyhead

License this image

Start Zooming
  • About the work
    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.
  • About the artist
    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.
  • Explore
    Places
    Subjects
    abstract
    Materials & Techniques
    canvas, oil, oil painting
  • Details
    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