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PRESS
RELEASE
PAUL DU TOIT HIGHLY CHARGED 4 September 19h00 – 6 October 2007 34LONG will host a wide-ranging exhibition of recent works by Paul du Toit from Tuesday 4 September to Saturday 6 October 2007, filling both the downstairs and upstairs spaces. Asked about the show’s title, Highly charged, Paul says it describes the tremendous energy that goes into producing his art. He notes with a smile that viewers see only the end product and often remain unaware of the vigorous process that leads up to that product. Paul draws continuously, filling sketchbook after sketchbook. He finds ideas everywhere: in accidental marks and spatters around the studio, sculptural notions in his head, playful chalk doodles he and his son make on the road outside the studio, in which, he says, up and down lose meaning. These days, he is experimenting more with directionality, after noticing that street drawings look equally interesting, though totally different, from any angle. His drawings are worked and reworked, and only after much consideration does he transfer ideas to the densely tactile surfaces of his canvases, painstakingly primed, textured, scraped, embossed and sanded to perfection with the aid of custom made-tools. Line is a primary force in all Paul’s work. For him, line in painting relates directly to the physicality of sculpture; its construction, its solidity and its emptinesses, the pull of gravity, the force of momentum. He superimposes images on phantom images, pulls them apart again, adding and subtracting, smudging and spreading colour sometimes haphazardly, at other times with burning deliberateness. He works with both hands, often noting with surprise the matchlessly delicate forms produced by his non-dominant hand. He mentions the calligraphic quality of rock engravings, strange alphanumeric systems and Chinese pictographs as sources of inspiration. Colour in Paul’s work is reduced to essentials, like line. He thinks of colour as a concentrated, almost instinctual energy, accessed through mental concentration and appreciated on a primal visual level. He considers sculpture his first love but says that he tends to produce more painting as the South African art public seems to find painting easier to relate to than sculpture. This exhibition will contain both. His sculptures, table pieces mostly, are made by a complex method starting with a shaped polystyrene core, dipped in several wax layers which are worked extensively for surface interest, shape and texture. The polystyrene is dissolved at a later stage, leaving the waxes hollow and skeletal, to be cast in bronze and then finished to perfection. Highly charged marks the resumption of Paul’s collaboration with 34 Long and, he says, a welcome period of stability in his career. No longer working from exhibition to exhibition, he creates steadily, and selects from his ever-growing body of work for exhibition. The double gallery space at 34 Long with its high ceilings is perfectly suited to his work which is best appreciated in calm, pristine space. Over the last ten years, Paul’s work has gained wide recognition, and has become sought-after by international collectors of contemporary art both corporate and individual. A vibrant secondary market, attested to by ever-increasing auction prices, means that buyers of his work may be confident of the inherent investment value of their collections. |
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| All images © the artist, 2007 | ||||
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34 Long Street Cape Town South Africa For more information contact Andries Loots: tel. +27 82 354 1500 fineart@34long.com Gallery
hours Tuesday - Friday 9h00-17h00 Saturday 10h-14h00 |
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