Pleasure-go-round: Simon Gaiger and Bernard Irwin | Floor 2
Openly decorative and anxiety free: In these paintings and coloured sculptures we are reminded of the guiltless museum art of 60’s America and the post Matissean paintings of Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland whose shapes were a prop for colour. Nolan said in 1969 “I want to have colour be the origin of painting” - like Noland, Irwin and Gaigers works tease us with gorgeous colour - formal hedonism.
It is worth noting that Simon and Bernard are the same generation and both men were born under a colourful sun - Malaya, Africa and the Pacific - time and place must have seeped deep into their psyche. Simon now lives in West Wales and Bernard in Cornwall yet still their childhood skin impacts their art.
The two men compliment each other but Simon’s sculptures, although abstract have a physical presence and are imbued with the narrative of the maker - here colour unifies form. Irwin’s paintings, on the other hand are impersonal, bubblegum loops or pods act as containers for his astute colour sense and knowledge of simultaneous contrast.
