The galleries: Tracing the thought behind the technique
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5:00AM
Thursday April 10, 2008
By T.J. McNamara
An artist's work can be brilliant in one way, flawed in another. Emotion, thought and technique make art. Virtuoso technique can be impressive in itself, yet not make a complete work.
This week there are three shows that are technically excellent but, in some measure, do not achieve the balance of the three elements. In the work of Anita De Soto, at Oedipus Rex Gallery until April 19, the drawing is immaculate and the representational element of the painting is completely convincing.
The exhibition is called Pie in the Sky and gives its title to one of the works. There are references at the top to several martyred women saints. Eyes on a stalk is the iconography for St Lucy. A floating scarf, a twirl of pearls and a breast on a plate is the attribute of St Agatha who had her bosom hacked off by an executioner. Then there is a breast-shaped glass bowl, some rocks, more pearls, a flourish of drapery, a hand pointing down to a transparent sphere balanced on the head of a moody dog lost in the gloom of the lower part of the painting.
