Sam Bassett 'One-And-All'
Catalogue of the exhibition 'One-And-All' by Sam Bassett, held at Millennium, St. Ives. www.millenniumgallery.co.uk/oneandall/catalogue.htm
Catalogue of the exhibition 'One-And-All' by Sam Bassett, held at Millennium, St. Ives. www.millenniumgallery.co.uk/oneandall/catalogue.htm
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S a m B a sS asm Be a sts e t | On e -nA de - A- l lA n d - A l l
“Man is a rope, tied between beast and overman - a rope over an abyss. A dangerous across, a dangerous<br />
on-the-way, a dangerous looking-back, a dangerous shuddering and stopping.<br />
What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not an end: what can be loved in man is that he is an overture<br />
and a going under.<br />
I love those who do not know how to live, except by going under, for they are those who cross over.<br />
I love the great despisers because they are the great reverers and arrows of longing for the other shore.<br />
I love those who do not first seek behind the stars for a reason to go under and be a sacrifice, but who<br />
sacrifice themselves for the earth, that the earth may some day become the overman’s.<br />
I love him who lives to know, and who wants to know so that the overman may live some day. <strong>And</strong> thus he<br />
wants to go under.<br />
I love him who works and invents to build a house for the overman and to prepare earth, animal, and plant<br />
for him: for thus he wants to go under.<br />
I love him who loves his virtue, for virtue is the will to go under and an arrow of longing.<br />
I love him who does not hold back one drop of spirit for himself, but wants to be entirely the spirit of his virtue:<br />
thus he strides over the bridge as spirit.<br />
I love him who makes his virtue his addiction and his catastrophe: for his virtue’s sake he wants to live on<br />
and to live no longer.<br />
I love him who does not want to have too many virtues. One virtue is more virtue than two, because it is more<br />
of a noose on which his catastrophe may hang.
I love him whose soul squanders itself, who wants no thanks and returns none: for he always gives away and<br />
does not want to preserve himself.<br />
I love him who is abashed when the dice fall to make his fortune, and asks, ‘Am I then a crooked gambler?’<br />
For he wants to perish.<br />
I love him who casts golden words before his deeds and always does even more than he promises: for he wants<br />
to go under.<br />
I love him who justifies future and redeems past generations: for he wants to perish of the present.<br />
I love him who chastens his god because he loves his god: for he must perish of the wrath of his god.<br />
I love him whose soul is deep, even in being wounded, and who can perish of a small experience: thus he goes<br />
gladly over the bridge.<br />
I love him whose soul is overfull so that he forgets himself, and all things are in him: thus all things spell his<br />
going under.<br />
I love him who has a free spirit and a free heart: thus his head is only the entrails of his heart, but his heart<br />
drives him to go under.<br />
I love all those who are as heavy drops, falling one by one out of the dark cloud that hangs over men: they<br />
herald the advent of lightning, and, as heralds, they perish.<br />
Behold, I am a herald of the lightning and a heavy drop from the cloud; but this lightning is called overman.”<br />
Friedrich Nietzsche, ‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None’, 1883 - 1885
The Spire, My Bridge<br />
mixed media on perspex, height 230 cm<br />
4
Just Us Three Now<br />
mixed media on perspex, 38 x 28 cm<br />
6
END - At The Coast<br />
mixed media on perspex, 22 x 22 cm<br />
7
8<br />
Spire and Bay<br />
mixed media on perspex, 15 x 8.5 cm<br />
Love My Bread, Love Our Wine<br />
mixed media on perspex, 15 x 8.5 cm<br />
Play More<br />
mixed media on perspex, 15 x 8.5 cm
Excitingly Prone To Failure<br />
mixed media on perspex, 15 x 8.5 cm<br />
Cuddling The Crap<br />
mixed media on perspex, 15 x 8.5 cm<br />
My Family, My Boat<br />
mixed media on perspex, 15 x 8.5 cm<br />
9
10<br />
let Me Touch Things<br />
mixed media on perspex, 15 x 8.5 cm<br />
You Have It All<br />
mixed media on perspex, 15 x 8.5 cm<br />
More Than A Fart<br />
mixed media on perspex, 15 x 8.5 cm
Be Happy With This<br />
mixed media on perspex, 15 x 8.5 cm<br />
Love For Your Phone<br />
mixed media on perspex, 15 x 8.5 cm<br />
Out Of The Mistake Came Cash<br />
mixed media on perspex, 15 x 8.5 cm<br />
11
12<br />
Do You Know How Much Crisps Cost!<br />
mixed media on perspex, 15 x 8.5 cm<br />
Not All Men Need A Beard<br />
mixed media on perspex, 15 x 8.5 cm<br />
Shit Dad Shall Die Alone<br />
mixed media on perspex, 15 x 8.5 cm
Weeping for Peace<br />
mixed media on perspex, 16 x 8.5 cm<br />
We Are All Our Own<br />
mixed media on perspex, 16 x 8.5 cm<br />
13
Personal Chapel (EDDY)<br />
mixed media, 80 x 40 cm<br />
14
Lost Kerenza<br />
concrete, 40 x 45 x 45 cm<br />
17
18<br />
Together <strong>And</strong> Tight<br />
mixed media on board, 29 x 21 cm<br />
We All Eat, She Ate Him<br />
mixed media on board, 29 x 21 cm
I Only Found His Shirt, Judas<br />
mixed media on board, 29 x 21 cm<br />
Do Not Teach The Evil<br />
mixed media on board, 29 x 21 cm<br />
19
Play Me, Play You, As Three Become Two<br />
mixed media on board, 238 x 214 cm<br />
21
Alone At Sea<br />
mixed media on board, 238 x 214 cm<br />
22
One-<strong>And</strong>-All<br />
ceramic in perspex case on stell base, 150 x 70 x 50 cm<br />
24
Only You, Need For Nothing More<br />
mixed media on board, 183 x 122 cm<br />
26
Found Her Down Town<br />
media on board, 183 x 122 cm<br />
27
28<br />
My Shadow Stands Alone When I Am Lost<br />
mixed media on board, 21 x 18 cm<br />
Swam Home Alone<br />
mixed media on board, 25 x 25 cm
I Love You Land | Where We Do Be<br />
mixed media on board, diptych, 18 x 21 cm each panel<br />
29
Trying To Play With A Male Fishwife<br />
mixed media on board, 238 x 214 cm<br />
30
I Want Your Head <strong>And</strong> Some Rioja, I Love Rioja<br />
mixed media on board, 62 x 57 cm<br />
32
Thinking Of You In The Bath I Was<br />
mixed media on board, 62 x 67 cm<br />
33
Teaching Jack To Pee Down Gwidden, We Remain Naughty Little Buggers<br />
mixed media on board, 80 x 68 cm<br />
34
Again <strong>And</strong> Again We Must Fail <strong>And</strong> Be, 1 - 6<br />
mixed media on board, 28 x 15 cm each<br />
37
For U, You’re father Will Never Die! Bassy<br />
mixed media on board, 93 x 60 cm<br />
39
Skinny Dipping Down Gwidden At Night<br />
mixed media on board, 245 x 245 cm<br />
40
<strong>Sam</strong> <strong>Bassett</strong> was born in St Ives and he has recently returned. The town has been his families home since 1695.<br />
The artistic traditions of the town had an undoubted influence over him as a young boy, but his Grandfather, a<br />
fisherman by trade was also a keen painter, as was his other Grandfather in Newlyn. They supported him with<br />
encouragement but also with painting materials.<br />
He now occupies a studio space at the prestigious Porthmeor studios; coincidently sitting above his Grandfather’s<br />
former net loft.<br />
His work is autobiographical, cataloguing the day to day of his life with honesty - both humour and pathos.<br />
Providing an insight in to his fast paced unique mind, the work displays enormous energy and experiment. His<br />
paintings could be described as a ‘psychological cubism’, where the inner and the outer self reveal themselves<br />
and coalesce.<br />
Over the last few years his life has had significant highs and lows. Much of his work, writing and research<br />
has been an attempt to seek guidance and clarity during this time. The period of lead up to the making of<br />
this exhibition, he recalls reading Dante’s Inferno as notable in his attempting to deal with navigating an<br />
unfamiliar personal path. This coincided with a rediscovery of the paintings of the Sienese School and in particular<br />
Duccio and Botticelli from the Florentine School. Looking at paintings and diagrams benefited <strong>Bassett</strong>’s greater<br />
understanding as he drew ideas from these works and delved deeper in to wider symbolism. He began<br />
replicating contemporary versions of the stories illustrated in these works; creating personal parables or<br />
parodies, the process bringing a cathartic understanding and balance, and guide to where he wants to be, as<br />
a person and an artist.<br />
Some works also take influence from closer to home specifically the artist Peter Lanyon, in particular his work<br />
‘The Yellow Runner’ from 1946. Lanyon painted this having just returned to St Ives, it is warm, energetic and<br />
joyful and <strong>Bassett</strong> felt an immediate connection. His most recent works imbue a celebratory connection to his<br />
home - his landscape, its community and his heritage.
Published by Millennium to coincide with the exhibition ‘One-<strong>And</strong>-All’ by <strong>Sam</strong> <strong>Bassett</strong><br />
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted<br />
in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior<br />
permission of the publishers<br />
Publication produced by Impact Printing Services (www.impactprintingservices.co.uk)<br />
M I L L E N N I U M<br />
Street-an-Pol<br />
St. Ives<br />
Cornwall<br />
01736 793121<br />
mail@millenniumgallery.co.uk<br />
www. m i l l e n n i u m g a l lery.co.uk