S.N.C.P. (Spontaneous, Non-Conceptual Painting) ,2012
Provenienza : Handspring Puppet Company.
Strauss & Co., South African Art, Jewellery and Decorative Arts, 6 February 2012, lot 657.
Exhibited :
Literature : Pollak, L. (2013). Simon Stone: Collected Works. Stellenbosch: SMAC Art Publishing, illustrated in colour on p.235.
Note : In this cool, calm and serene ‘pin-board’ composition, Simon Stone perfectly “plays up the contrasts between representation and abstraction, the spontaneous and the calculated, the sketchy and the highly finished”.[1]
The painting is a beautiful example of Stone’s lyrical impromptus. The title, SNCP, stands for spontaneous, non-conceptual painting – Stone’s personal artistic strategy which references Surrealist automatism as a way to avoid planning, conscious thought and intension while making art.
In his analysis of this painting, writer Lloyd Pollak describes that Stone embraces this ideal in the background of the work “which he turns into a free-wheeling impromptu that exudes the breezy freshness and wonky charm of child art. Although the doodles, random shapes and meandering lines look like fumbling efforts, Stone’s mark-making evidences the skill and sophistication of a seasoned master”.[2]
Two ‘inset-paintings’ float on top of the expressive abstract surface. The focus is on a detailed rendering of a Japanese Satsuma vase which contrasts with a loosely painted lay-in vignette of the Karoo. Here, Pollak reminds the viewer of the mystic streak that runs in Stone’s paintings and explains that “symbolism transforms the vase into a repository of spiritual treasure. The flat stonelike forms signifying the artist’s presence, the vase, the Karoo landscape and the abstract painting in the upper register, are all united by lines and bars implying that the different elements in this painting represent different facets of a single, all-embracing reality”.[3]
Marelize van Zyl
[1] Pollak, L. (2013). Simon Stone: Collected Works. Stellenbosch: SMAC Art Publishing. p.234.
[2] Ibid
[3] Ibid
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