Artist: Paul Anthony Hartford
Title: Untitled (man on bicycle with dalmatian)
Year: 1990
Dimension: 55 x 55 cm
Technique: Graphite on paper
Price: TBC
About the Artist
Paul Anthony Harford was a British Postwar & Contemporary artist who was born in 1943. Their work was featured in several exhibitions at key galleries and museums, including the Sadie Coles HQ, London (Davies Street). Paul Anthony Harford has been featured in articles for the Frieze Magazine and the “this is tomorrow”. The most recent article is The Tenderness of Paul Anthony Harford’s Drawings written by Harry Thorne for the Frieze Magazine in November 2018. The artist died in 2016.
Text is taken from https://www.mutualart.com/
What does this work say (to me)?
Our minds are extraordinary.
We have our beliefs; we have a very individual sense of aesthetic and we have that tiny/massive part in us that likes to challenge the previous both.
Being curious is one of the main indicators that our “skeptical part” is working. Sometimes we can verbalize the thought that comes to us in those moments, sometimes we just can feel it.
One of the many wonderful aspects of art is that in front of its presence we are constantly challenged or reaffirmed, reassured.
When I saw Paul’s work and specifically this drawing of his, which I particularly liked, my belief system (the art-related one) was challenged and my sense of aesthetics reassured.
My art-related belief was challenged because I strongly think that the repetition of a subject already explored does not make that person an “artist” at all, it makes him/her a craftsmen/woman. There has to be something else that is given. At the heart of the work of an artist have to be creation and expression, not replication.
Was I looking at the work of an artist or the sweet work of a skilled draftsman? The answer to this was a complicated one as my mind started to bring references to me being the strongest in the work of Magritte and Hopper.
There was this feeling of isolation and dream-like qualities on the drawing; everything on it seems to be the symbol of something. It feels as if everything is wanting to say something no just representing themselves.
When looking at this work and the others in the exhibition as a collective both aspects were present on all of them in different degrees.
Paul Anthony Hartford, with his technique, and a particular way of seeing was representing life where isolation and alienation were a constant. All this was done with a conscious reluctance in accepting that part of the human misery but with the tragic aspect of not fighting it but embracing it.
And then it came to my realization that what he was doing was that something else beyond taking elements of other artists. He was expressing a feeling in a consisting, articulated way.
In what Room to place it?
Due to the intimate character of the drawing, I would suggest it be hung in a room, study, or small hall.
Displaying it
It is a nicely drawn image which for me should be framed with a black linear frame or a dark wood one.
Careful lighting has to be in place due to the dark tones. You must take into account it is paper which makes it vulnerable to strong light sources.
