George Shaw
Page 1 of 4: Looking for evidence
http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsi ... index.html
'As a kid, I wanted something to happen,' says George Shaw.
Well, who didn't? But Shaw has made this feeling his muse. He's become famous for painting the Tile Hill estate in Coventry where he grew up in the 70s: its houses, paths, garages and woods. He paints with an intensity that has critics comparing him to Edward Hopper and the German Romantic Caspar David Friedrich. And he does it all with Humbrol enamels – the same shiny paints he used as a boy on his Airfix models.
'I'm looking for evidence. I'm not sure of what. Perhaps that I was here.'
With titles like Number 57 and The Path Behind The Shops, the paintings at first seem hyper-realistic. But there are no people, cars or satellite dishes; no wheelie-bins or crushed drinks cans – nothing that can date the scenes to the 21st century, or to the 1970s, for that matter. These buildings and woods are hard-edged but also have the timeless quality of a dream.
'I'm looking for evidence,' says Shaw. 'I'm not sure of what. Perhaps that I was here. These paintings come out of a mourning for the person I used to be – a passionate teenager, who read art books and novels and poems and biographies, watched films and TV and listened to music.'
'I feel like I'm trying to gather something up,' he adds, prowling the concrete, camera in hand, 'like a sleuth.'
(...)
http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsi ... index.html
Websites
Art of the Matter
http://society.guardian.co.uk/ housing/story/0,7890,1017146,00.html
Article and interview with George Shaw in the Guardian, prior to his exhibition in 2003.
Getting Sentimental
http://westmidlands.ideasfactory.com/ art_design/features/feature19.htm
Shaw gives an interview about nostalgia, profundity and an innovative use for Humbrol enamel paint.
Ghosts Expose the Dark Side of Suburban Summers
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/ thereview.cfm?id=152762004
Review of an exhibition of Shaw's works held in Dundee in March 2004.
Paper Jam
www.paper-jam.co.uk/reviews.php?rev_ref=24
Reviews and comments on the works of George Shaw.
Tate Britain
www.tate.org.uk/britain/ eventseducation/shawbracewell.htm
George Shaw in conversation with Michael Bracewell.
Tate Collection
www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=5253&page=1
Shaw's painting Scenes from the Passion: Late can be seen at Tate Britain in London.
Welfare-State International
www.welfare-state.org/current/dead/georgeshaw.html
Brief biography and online image of one of George Shaw's works – The Prophets – a humbrol enamel that featured in an exhibition entitled 'Dead' in 2002.
What I Did This Summer
www.ikon-gallery.co.uk/pastExhibitionsGeorgeShaw.htm
Synopsis of Shaw's work based on an exhibition in 2003 held at the Ikon Gallery.
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Books
Edward Hopper edited by Sheena Wagstaff (Tate Publishing, August 2004)
Published to accompany a major retrospective exhibition, this title analyses Hopper's work in the context of both American and European painting from the turn of the 20th century up until the 1960s. Shaw's work has frequently been compared with Hopper's.
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George Shaw: This was life by George Shaw (Ikon Gallery, 2003)
Shaw's first book of collected writings.
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George Shaw: What I did this summer by George Shaw (Ikon Gallery, 2003)
This catalogue accompanies Shaw's first major solo exhibition to examine his acclaimed style of painting involving a rigorous academic approach and a meticulous rendering in Humbrol enamel paint. His paintings are rich evocations of place and memory, depicting the council housing estate in Tile Hill, Coventry where he grew up.
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What Is Painting? Representation and Modern Art by Julian Bell (Thames and Hudson, 1999)
'Yes, but is it art?' The author, himself a painter, confronts the uncertainty and suspicion many people feel about art today.
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Credits
Produced to accompany The Art Show: The Late George Shaw (a World of Wonder production), first screened on Channel 4 in September 2004.
Writer: Liane Jones
Designer: 72 dots
Editor: Peter Millson
Project manager: Red Cinnamon
Resources co-ordinator: Nicole Carman