White on white on paper

At Winchester Galleries on Broad Street

Opening: Saturday, October 11, 2008
2:00 pm- 4:00 pm

Exhibition continues until October 29, 2008

Ron Bloore's work is consistent with Kandinsky's notion that lines, squiggles and colour conjure certain feelings and ideas such as rest, movement, coldness, warmth. In this model, form and content are conjoined. The Cartesian separation is spoofed. To have mind without body would be like smoke without fire, speculates Timothy Long (editor and an essayist for 'Ronald Bloore: Fragments of Infinity,' Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, 2007).
 
The 'body' might be analogous to form. 'Art to be good has to be formally under control,' says Bloore. He also looks for content which is - this may not be his word - meaningful. He has sought to hone to that - and his inspirations, not per se to copy, but to inspire, have included Byzantine, Egyptian, Chinese and Japanese art and some landscape by Emily Carr. These influences have impressed on Bloore the power of the imagination. To paraphrase Bloore: Giotto was banal; he painted the sky blue. Where is the imagination in that?' Bloore, instead, votes for Cimabue; his skies are gold.
 
Major contributions to Bloore studies are: Terrence Heath: 'Ronald R. Bloore: Not Without Design,' Mackenzie Art Gallery, 1993; Timothy Long, ed: 'Ronald Bloore: Fragments of Infinity' op. cit. and Linda Corbett: 'White Balance: the Work of Ronald Bloore,' a film which will be played at Winchester on Broad Street from time to time throughout the exhibition.
 
In addition to works from two series, namely the Sackville Series (1979) and the Gouaches (1980), this exhibition features various of the forgotten works which link those two series. Curator Hank Roest notes: 'Bloore's production through these several years is pivotal in both looking back to his early white on white painting and ahead to his more graphic work.'