David Royle
PAINTINGS
BIOGRAPHY
Including C.V. and Exhibition Lists
A set of ten paintings dedicated to Nancy Royle
a PRELUDE in 3 PARTS and a FUGUE in 7 PARTS
a PRELUDE in 3 PARTS and a FUGUE in 7 PARTS
Prelude & Fugue
Prelude
Passing through
Passing through the Garden
Together in the Garden
Between Me and You, 1
Between Me and You, 2
Between Me and You, 3
Between Me and You, 4
Between Me and You, 5
Between Me and You, 6
Between Me and You, 7
"Passing through" 2011 145 x 145cm
"Passing through the Garden" 2011 164 x 164cm
"Together in the Garden" 2011 168 x 168cm
"Between Me and You, 1" 2014 137 x 183cm
"Between Me and You, 2" 2015 101.5 x 142cm
"Between Me and You, 3" 2015 111.5 x 111.5cm
"Between Me and You, 4" 2015 101.5 x 101.5cm
"Between Me and You, 5" 2015 122 x 122cm
"Between Me and You, 6" 2015 122 x 122cm
"Between Me and You, 7" 2015 89 x 160cm
A note about the paintings
A conversation with an old friend took me to the work of Paul Celan for the first time. It was the internal structure of his famous poem "Todesfugue" that really caught my attention: a few images repeating and moving from stanza to stanza, each time with differing prominence and emphasis, subtly expanding the meaning. It was clearly impossible for me to work with his imagery, drawn so specifically from a German Jewish holocaust experience. But, at home, my lovely wife Nancy was in the last months of her life with a long-tern declining and incurable illness. Reflecting on this, our imminent separation after almost forty years together, provided me with my own personally significant imagery. The result was this painted Fugue, this sequence through which the imagery/themes appear re-imagined in each piece.
Part-way through working on them I recalled some paintings I made in 2011, when we already knew Nancy's time was limited, and which could now be seen to anticipate the imagery of the Fugue works. To extend the musical analogy, three of these paintings now became a Prelude of three parts to the seven part Fugue which follows. Together they make-up the full set of ten paintings.
Nancy died on the 19th October 2015.
Part-way through working on them I recalled some paintings I made in 2011, when we already knew Nancy's time was limited, and which could now be seen to anticipate the imagery of the Fugue works. To extend the musical analogy, three of these paintings now became a Prelude of three parts to the seven part Fugue which follows. Together they make-up the full set of ten paintings.
Nancy died on the 19th October 2015.
Fugue