He has been described as the Constable of the council estate. British artist George Shaw was born in 1966 and raised in Tile Hill, a suburb of Coventry. A painter of the ordinary and the mundane, Shaw seems to imbue these scenes with a romantic longing, whilst enhancing their bleakness. He studied art at Sheffield Polytechnic followed by the Royal College of Art in the 1990s, but the post-war council estates where he grew up continued to inspire him.
Playtime
Memories of childhood and adolescence provided the inspiration for his work - a sentimental and nostalgic reverie (as he puts it), but he believes that now his work is a confrontation with reality rather than “relaxing back into a comfortable situation”. In an interview, Shaw expressed frustration over the need to develop a special language in order to understand contemporary art, whereas for him it’s all about engaging directly with another human being. He wanted to produce an image which a professor of fine art could discuss with his mother and neither of them being condescending towards the other. A universal language perhaps?
From Shaw's 12 Short Walks series, etching 2005
The religious overtones in the titling of his work derives from Shaw being raised as a Catholic, thus his titles often refer to the Bible or the life of Christ. Commentating on his home town, Shaw once said “I don't think it has ever left me, that sense of possibility and familiarity and possible danger lurking out there somewhere beyond. I haunted the place and now it haunts me.”
The Path On The Edge, 1997-98
Shaw has some interesting insights into the responses to his work, “It has been said my work is sentimental. I don’t know why sentimentality has to be a negative quality. What I look for in art are the qualities I admire or don’t admire in human beings.” He seems to be able to intertwine different emotions into his work. There is a sense of foreboding, isolation, nostalgia in his work where the viewer has been taken on a journey to something hidden, or perhaps to an escape from some unexplained drama. “I fear death considerably and I fear the ending of things, so I am anxious about things coming to an end... I am very clear in a lot of the images to always paint ways out.”
From Scenes From the Passion series; Christmas Eve
In an interview with the art historian Andrew Graham Dixon, Shaw explained some of his motivations. “When I first went to an art gallery at age 14 (the Tate), I didn’t see my world in that gallery….where is my life, perhaps my life isn’t worth anything? You stepped out of your world into a gallery.” So he decided to open the window at home and draw what’s there. “And if you don’t find it beautiful, that’s your fault.” Perhaps ironically, his work is now on the walls of the Tate. Graham-Dixon argues that Shaw’s work isn’t just an accurate depiction of an urban environment, they are descriptions of a mood - modern man alienated in a largely man-made landscape.
End Of Time 2008-09
He works from photographs taken with a humble camera, he works quickly, not needing to roam around looking for inspiration. He already has the inspiration, he just needs to find images that support it. He has painted in water colour but primarily uses enamel.
Shaw’s work is a melancholic exploration of the passage of time, of a sense of loss. He often recalls a pub in Tile Hill, once the social hub of the area, but then demolished with no record of its existence save for his drawings. The Guardian sums up his work succinctly, “the passage of time, the roots of who we are and the melancholy of approaching middle age.”
Every Brushstroke is Torn Out of My Body, 2016, Enamel on canvas, 198 cm wide
Hello, my name is Geoff. You may be interested to know that I’m a fulltime artist these days and regularly exhibit my work in Victoria, but particularly in Melbourne. You may wish to check out my work using the following link; https://geoffharrisonarts.com
References;
Artuk.org
Artfund.org
The Secret of Drawing - BBC TV