A show of paintings by John Speirs, Oleg Tyrkin and Auguste Rodin ...

JOHN SPEIRS, OLEG TYRKIN AND AUGUSTE RODIN SCULPTURES
Throughout May, the Hay Hill Gallery will present two
exhibitions of paintings by British artist John Speirs and
Russian artist Oleg Tyrkin. Collectively, the exhibitions aim
to capture the nostalgic mood of the artists’ encounter with
nature, and the perception and memories of the past. Both
shows will be open to public from the 4-29 May.
‘Conversations with the Sea’ by John
Speirs is the artist’s third exhibition at the
Hay Hill Gallery and is a group of
paintings that are intimate portraits of the
sea in its many moods. Subverting the
tradition of marine painting in broadly
brushed canvases, Speirs’ captivating
images of the sea appear to fill the canvas
with glittering stillness and rampaging
force. For all their apparent indebtedness
to the Impressionist style this series,
however, also invokes a therapeutic
engagement with the sea. Paint, colour
and brushstrokes work together to explore
the ever-changing character of water as it
smashes against the rocks, rolls towards
the shore or sparkles in reflective
moments.
John Speirs.
John was a leading graphic artist with
J Walter Thompson and became a
trouble-shooter for the advertising
world. He returned to England recently,
and travels regularly to Uzes in France to
paint en plein air. In Speirs’ paintings
classical draughtsmanship, in the Slade
tradition, meets extremely rich and
vibrant colour palette making his works
aesthetically pleasing and collectable.
‘Pilots and Wives’, an exhibition of
paintings by the Russian artist Oleg
Tyrkin is the second survey of his recent
work to be held in the UK. The exhibition
consists of twenty works spanning from
2003 to 2010. Oleg’s paintings are
supremely honest and naive, their
imagery is openly figurative.
Oleg Tyrkin.
According to curator and the artist’s
wife Masha Naimushina, ‘The title
encapsulates the extreme opposites of
the world my husband left behind with
the collapse of the Soviet Union: the
intense feelings of all combat pilots
facing the instant possibility of death
and their yearning for wives, girlfriends
and lovers left behind waiting.’
Most of Oleg’s works have no titles
beyond the nominal, which allows the
onlooker more freedom to interpret their
many levels of meaning. Instead of
narrative, Oleg’s language is archaic and
poetic, reminiscent of old photographs
of long-forgotten people and places,
which now exist on some eternal plane
of consciousness. Their emotional
impact lies in their evocation of a mood
of childhood, with its almost sacred
levels of half-forgotten memory.
The two exhibitions will be on view
alongside the Hay Hill collection of
some of the most iconic pieces of the
famed sculptor Auguste Rodin. Among
the collection of posthumous casts are
such iconic works as The Thinker, The
Kiss, Eve, Age of Bronze, Balzac, The
Walking Man, along with many other
well-known sculptures. The noted Rodin
Scholar Albert Elsen considered the
posthumous recasting of the sculptor’s
work as part of the natural evolution in
the sculptures life. The exhibition on
display shows that it is once again
possible to capture the essence of the
artist’s life accomplishments in casts of
the highest quality, cast from foundry
plasters.
Hay Hill Gallery is at 5a Cork Street,
Mayfair, W1. Telephone 020 7439 1001
or 020 7439 2299. www.hayhill.com
T H I S I S L O N D O N M A G A Z I N E • T H I S I S L O N D O N O N L I N E
Rodin: Nijinsky.
Rodin: Fallen Caryatid Carrying Her Stone.
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