Michael J Strang
the impossible mark

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The Impossible Mark

To what extent a title can impinge on, dictate or alter the experience of an exhibition is open to conjecture but in choosing this title I feel that I am expressing one of the tenets that has always held sway in my work.

As an art student I spent many hours looking at the wonderful paintings of John Constable in the Victoria and Albert Museum, in particular at the very large oil sketch “Study for the leaping horse”. This could be said to be the image that engendered the name of this exhibition. I can remember vividly the excitement I felt when I saw the myriad dots and dashes of abstract colours becoming water, sky and earth before my very eyes, thus creating a continual oscillation between the magic of reality and the magic of paint.

Seeing the world locked in the embrace of paint in such a symbolic way reinforced in my mind the power of the Welsh poet, R.S. Thomas’ dictum that metaphor puts us in touch with Gods. Pigment here, is but a metaphor for life itself. Sir Kenneth Clark, the celebrated art historian, was struck in the same way by the “leaping horse”, posing the question so eloquently in his magnificent book, “Civilization”. To paraphrase, he said “by what alchemy does Constable persuade us that this mass of sensuous marks in fact gives birth to the intense poetical rendering of his beloved Suffolk Landscape?" Constable himself had spoken of the imagination required to “realize” a sequence of marks that is inspired by the subject then orchestrated symphonically in the work of art.

Francis Bacon too was entranced by Constable’s and others’ use of pigment in this way and on looking at an eye in a particular Rembrandt portrait, referred to the dabs and groups of colours that then “turn into” a living eye that follows one around the room. The phrase “the impossible mark” was thus born, so succinctly encapsulating and informing the experience that I have described in these paragraphs and which has become part of my own Artistic Journey.

Michael J Strang
May 2008
Gulval, Penzance

“Taking pride of place is a glorious painting of a beach at sunset in which the dramatic light effects transform the beach into a glittering kaleidoscope of colours and creates cloud patterns in a clear turquoise sky.”

Beatrice Phillpotts’ critique on Strang’s Lewis-Elton Gallery, Surrey University exhibition October 2006

“Michael Strang is an artist who has poetry as well as painting in his soul. While his paintings are filled with sunshine and warmth, at the same time, the anger of clouds, the threat of rain is never far away… .”

Frank Ruhrmund, writing for the Cornishman newspaper

“He paints many pictures all of which have a fine sense of structure and design. They all proclaim zest and a necessity to paint. Rugged in texture and resonant in colour, his pictures are a glowing testament to his dedication and vigour”

Anthony Eyton R.A., former tutor of Michael Strang at Camberwell School of Art

“Michael Strang, our most successful artist is a particular favourite with the American collectors. He paints for dear life every day, illuminating his canvasses with a depth of colour and vividness that is all his own.”

Bryan Forbes, film director and former owner of The Gallery, Virginia Water

“Strang is a modern day Romantic, seeking to absorb and then reproduce the natural world, and in this tradition he has habitually formed fixations with certain locations, to which he has returned, again and again, capturing each place in a myriad different lights.”

Alison Bevan, Director of Penlee House and Museum, Penzance

“We invited Michael to continue the enthusiasm of earlier painters such as Sickert, Borlase Smart, Julian Olsson and Tony O’Malley, using as they had, Porthmeor Beach as their subject. The paintings were so energetically worked on that they were counted in their hundreds.”

Michael Tooby, Curator of Tate St Ives at the time of “Porthmeor Beach: a century of images”, 1995 in which Strang showed over 50 works

I first saw the work Michael J Strang in 2005 at a retrospective exhibition of his paintings at the Brecon Museum in Powys, Wales. Michael had lived in South Wales for many years and his portrayals of the landscape and particularly of working people there appealed very much to the Welshman in me. Later that year, we showed a small selection of his Welsh work at The Great Atlantic Gallery in Monmouth with a stated intention that we should collaborate on presenting a major collection of his work here in Cornwall.

With most artists that we represent, discussions take place about when the show will be and how many paintings will be entered. With Michael, things work differently. His studios are overflowing with paintings spanning a 40 year period. Selecting work for exhibition from the vast array of painted canvasses and panels and is an exercise more akin to quarrying than you can possibly imagine unless you had been part of the process. And unlike the majority of artists who are quite keen to sell their work, Michael displays a marked reluctance, which partly explains why there so very much work to choose from.

Michael Strang has been a professional artist since 1973 when he graduated from Wimbledon and then Camberwell Schools of art. He has shown his work in over 100 exhibitions including, Bond Street, Cork Street, The Royal Academy and St Martins-in-the-Fields in London and most notably in the Tate, St Ives in 1995. He has a huge library and hence is knowledgeable about almost every aspect of his profession. His paintings may be found in private and public collections all over the world and donated pieces are closely associated with a number of fine charitable appeals - Great Ormond Street and several other hospitals, Cancer Research, St Martins-in-the-Fields, and many more.

Michael Jay, Falmouth, June 2008

Please call 01326 318452 (gallery hours) or 01736 786016 (evenings and weekends) or e-mail: gallery@greatatlantic.co.uk to reserve the work of your choice.

The Great Atlantic Falmouth Gallery
48 Arwenack Street, Falmouth TR11 3JH
Tel 01326 31845

www.greatatlantic.co.uk
e-mail: gallery@greatatlantic.co.uk