Lindsay Broughton - drawing
Lindsay Broughton – Imagining Hellas
Lindsay Broughton has long been fascinated by ancient civilisations – with that of Greece, in particular. His exhibition of drawings at Hobart’s Handmark Gallery, a show entitled Imagining Hellas, is an expression of his long-term love affair with all things Ancient Greek.
In terms of imagery, technique and media, the new show is a sequel - albeit on a smaller scale - to his last solo exhibition, Stones of Thassos, presented at Hobart’s Carnegie Gallery in October, 2005. Whereas the Carnegie exhibition featured very large drawings (up to 2.5 x 4.5 metres in size), the works in Imagining Hellas are of more ‘human’ proportions.
Broughton’s imagery develops through two distinct stages. The first stage is one of study and analysis ‘on the spot’ in ancient sites and museums. He considers direct experience of his subject as critical. Here he adopts a quasi-archaeological approach, producing analytical, objective studies. He employs the academic method of seeing and drawing that formed the basis of his training in the early 1960s, a method made exciting and empowering by his Royal Academy-trained teacher - and brilliant draughtsman - the Tasmanian artist George Davis. Broughton also takes many photographs of his subject and makes notes for future reference.
Somewhat paradoxically, it is precisely during the hours spent in objective visual analysis through drawing that a subjective dimension of an object or place begins to form in Broughton’s mind. The all-absorbing space and time into which the artist enters when studying and drawing a particular subject facilitates the gradual emergence of a sense of revelation. It is as if a subject starts to speak, albeit in inaudible whispers. Beyond its formal character, a subject’s latent expressive character is sensed. There is a sense of meaning (but of what?), of significance (but for what?) that energise the artist’s imagination. Inhabiting this other ‘world’, the artist perceives a subject in ways other than the purely visual. Also paradoxically, however, this ‘beyond-visual’ world yet has to be portrayed in visual terms.
In the larger studio drawings that emanate from his smaller objective studies, Broughton portrays historical artefacts in ways that transcend the latters’ relative archaeological objectivity and ‘fact’. Typically, in these studio works, he alters details and overall proportions for compositional reasons, while, for expressive purposes, he incorporates within a particular work details from his studies of other artefacts. He strives to realise images of speculation and mystery that connect viewers, via their own imaginations, with some ancient, mythic past. He likes to quote Kandinsky: ‘Speak of mystery in terms of the mystery’. Thus Broughton does not know precisely what his own drawings actually mean. Perhaps his real subject is mystery itself.
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Cavalcade - SOLD |
Hebe - SOLD |
Hera of Samos - SOLD |
Minotaur - SOLD |