Day: October 28, 2019

There is a cool, quiet elegance to Alan Macdonald’s paintings, which belies the disequilibrium at their heart. His figures, grey eyed and dreaming, might be time travellers, drawing distant cousinship from the portraits of Rembrandt or Frans Hals. His bucolic northern landscapes lay claim to an equally venerable artistic heritage. But if an accretion of the art historical past informs his imagery, it is transposed into a world where confidence has been lost, where the spiritual beliefs and myths which once bound man to nature, and through nature, to the divine, fail to connect.

Frequently, single letters or words, even meticulously copied dictionary definitions, are added to the sections of a painting, as if language might hold a key.

We follow through the a,b,c, trying to piece together the jigsaw, but language proves as fallible as any system by which we structure our existence, and we are left with a series of miswired lexical circuits. Is a landscape “an area of land regarded as being visually distinct,” or is it “a painting, drawing, photograph etc. depicting natural scenery?”

Macdonald lets both definitions stand. Though he would not call himself a surrealist, like Magritte, he points up the ambiguities surrounding real objects and their images in art, encouraging us to consider his work as more than a simple pictorial narrative.

The otherworldly characters in his series of portrait heads have the look of forgotten pilgrims, bonneted and constrained by cords like the followers of some perverse form of Puritanism. Each is neatly titled according to a state of mind: hedonist, altruist, sadist. We read the titles and search their waxen features, hoping to discover their soul in the curl of a lip, or the tilt of a chin. Despite this attempt at self assertion the figures remain isolated, pinned down by their cords, as if by the codes and strictures of society.

These are beautiful paintings, all the more potent for their distilled sense of calm. Macdonald gives us no answers, but the questions he raises about the search for faith and identity in a difficult modern world touch a nerve, and in the faces of his pilgrims, we recognise ourselves.

It seems fitting that artist Alan Macdonald, born and brought up in Malawi, one of the least populated areas in South East Africa, now lives and works in a small town not too far from medieval Edinburgh, Scotland. His meticulously crafted images are emblematic of Scottish characteristics – love of nature, history, humour, beauty and surreal scenery – linked together in compelling enigmatic and sometimes foreign imagery.

" “It took me years to realize that it is the darkness in things that I  respond to, whether it is a painting by Francisco Goya, a song by  Leonard Cohen, a play by William Shakespeare or a film by Pedro  Almodovar. 

When I was a child living in Africa, I was outside on a night  lit by the moon and, feeling a little scared, I stepped from the light  into a dark shadow,” the artist told Tatha Gallery. 

“The darkness  wrapped itself around me and fear was replaced by an understanding that I  was being protected. Later, when I was twelve, a boy walked into my  classroom with drawings he had done in pencil. They were representations  of figures, that went from the white of the paper to the blackest black  that the graphite could muster, and from that moment the artistic light  for me was ignited.” 

-Alan MacDonald

There is seemingly no element too exotic to inhabit an oil painting by Alan MacDonald, whose works traverse cultures and histories to present something always elegant in execution. At the base of MacDonald’s work seems to be a need for adventure, exploring inspiration and varying perspectives in each work.

• Alan Macdonald Paintings
• The Oil Paintings of Alan MacDonald | Hi-Fructose Magazine
• Alan Macdonald – Art, Bio, Insights – Artsy
• Alan Macdonald – Home | Facebook
• Alan Macdonald | Tatha Gallery | Scottish Art Gallery
• Alan Macdonald | Art Auction Results

 Exhibiting in the United States and Holland,  Dundee-trained Alan Macdonald has clearly distilled his own unique  visual language in an impressive debut at Kilmorack. This is  sophisticated, visually literate work both in terms of technical  execution and multi-layered exploration of ideas, infused with humour  and defined with precision. 
       
While there are many art historical  influences to be seen in this work, Macdonald remains his own man, in  full knowledge of the canon, playfully seducing the viewer with  familiarity of style then subverting expectation of traditional  narrative. Displacement of elements; the surreal juxtaposition of  classical and industrial architecture, the adornment and status of  costume with utilitarian functionality and the presence of consumer  branding/ Pop elements in the same frame as traditions of historical  painting and portraiture thankfully never allow the audience to get too  comfortable. 

 -Statements by Alan MacDonald © Georgina Coburn, 2011  

Often incorporating hyper-realistic contemporary popular culture objects and well-known phrases, Macdonald’s Renaissance style paintings are at once familiar yet strange, inviting close inspection as if asking us to solve an amusing, highly original puzzle. Alan Macdonald acknowledges that, indeed, the solution can sometimes elude him; his skill is to give us hauntingly beautiful pictorial clues which tug on our psyche while making us smile, even laugh out loud while encouraging us to search for our own answers.

The work is archetypally Northern in its  interior quality, the dark grounds and focussed illumination  reminiscent of Flemish masters, the looser paint handling, particularly  in the landscape backgrounds, akin to Dutch landscape and maritime  painting of the 18th century. The unforgiving choice of oil on board  makes the sublime delicacy of the painted surface all the more  impressive.
       
The beguiling Bullfighters Never know When To Quit  is an excellent example, a figurative group of seated male matador and  classical female nude with an attendant leopard at their feet, all  enigmatically focused on a scene beyond the frame. In the background  three blazing buildings infuse the contemplative stillness with  vitality, imminent danger and movement. This is contrasted with the  delicate play of light between three aspects of self, radiant and  luminous as a Titian Venus. The paint handling in this image is infused  with care and vulnerability, while the presence of a line of song lyric;  ”welcome back my friends to the show that never ends” provides an  ironic counterfoil to the conscious theatrical staging of the  composition. This humour is characteristic of the way in which Macdonald  visually stages his own subterfuge, an admirable quality in work with a  decidedly intellectual edge. 

 -Statements by Alan MacDonald © Georgina Coburn, 2011  

The tension in these works is  compelling, and their real beauty lies in the fluid nature of  association which imaginatively expands the mind of the viewer along  multiple pathways of interpretation. These are works not just of a  moment but of lifetimes, a real rarity in the world of contemporary art.  Macdonald’s skilful and intelligent manipulation of plastic and  ideological elements can be seen in the compositional strength of a  large scale work, Whims of Desire.
       
Here a young woman stands in the tiered  architecture of her black domed gown, tethered to something or someone  we cannot see, a number of openings in her skirt revealing a punch  spring, ball and chain, the unfurling script of a popular Joplin lyric;  “lord won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz”, a Magritte-like spoon and a  bouquet of white flowers suspended from her dress. At her feet a white  monkey eyes the open red “Kettle sweet chilli flavour” crisps packet in  her hand while she gazes past us impassively, a smile dawning in the  corner of her mouth. 

 -Statements by Alan MacDonald © Georgina Coburn, 2011  

The elegance and restraint of her  clothing, symbolic presence of the monkey, together with the iconography  of burning buildings in the background convey psychological and sexual  tension. The composition itself is a powerful pyramid structure, aligned  with light, centring on her pale skin, white ribbon of script and rope  tether. Within this triangle are multiple triggers for the imagination.
       
In Venus On Wheels a codified  genre and its associative meanings are temporarily displaced by the  presence of a contemporary branded object. The Classical Goddess and  symbol of beauty of the title is being hauled on a cheap looking  trolley, the familiar striped design of a Tesco bag a Pop prop within an  image spanning multiple timeframes. The deep umber background of “dark  satanic mills” heightens the illumination of the consumer object and the  female nude. 

 -Statements by Alan MacDonald © Georgina Coburn, 2011  

Luna is an intriguing and  ambiguous image of femininity, beautifully rendered. The head and  shoulders portrait is suitably enigmatic, aligned with the symbolic  associations of the moon and her phases, linked with the element of  water and tides. The three-quarters profile – like the trajectory of all  of Macdonald‘s work – conceals and reveals. There is implied  confinement in the twisted twine and safety pins which secure and tether  her costume in silvery textured gossamer blue, a hue to match her eyes.  Attached to one line of twine the script “fly me to the moon”  introduces a Pop element /humorous Sinatra twist to what initially reads  like an encoded Renaissance society portrait.
       
This is a fascinating show of  contrasting styles, raising expectation about potential developments in  Kilmorack’s regularly exhibiting artists and introducing an exciting and  dynamic new artist to the gallery’s audience. It is an absolute  pleasure to become lost in the multi-layered nature of Alan Macdonald’s  work, encouraging repeat viewings of this extraordinary show.
       
-Statements by Alan MacDonald © Georgina Coburn, 2011 

Alan Macdonald considers his work a visual journey with a subtext of a sense of adventure and excitement but destination unknown. As he tells us… “There is the belief in every painting that one day, as you set sail, you will find a faraway beach on which to land, avoiding the ragged rocks and inky depths of doubt. On one of the luckier voyages you arrive somewhere that is strangely familiar but which you have never seen before. It is a distant coast of you”.

  It took me years to realise that it is the  darkness in things that I respond to, whether it is a painting by  Francisco Goya, a song by Leonard Cohen, a play by William Shakespeare  or a film by Pedro Almodovar. When I was a child living in Africa, I was  outside on a night lit by the moon and, feeling a little scared, I  stepped from the light into a dark shadow. The darkness wrapped itself  around me and fear was replaced by an understanding that I was being  protected.  Later, when I was twelve, a boy walked into my classroom  with drawings he had done in pencil. They were representations of  figures, that went from the white of the paper to the blackest black  that the graphite could muster, and from that moment the artistic light  for me was ignited.
       
A wise old German painter friend once  said to me, after seeing me floundering around trying to explain away  one of my paintings, “Remember, Alan, your paintings are like a bubble,  and a bubble with a hole in it is no longer a bubble.” So with that in  mind, I will tread carefully.  

 -ALAN MACDONALD  

 
Nothing pleases me more than when  someone laughs out loud whilst looking at one of my paintings. As  comedians are aware, humour is a subversive thing, breaking down  barriers and making others more receptive to your message or point of  view. Years ago, a particularly tired, world-weary man came into my  exhibition, with an, 'impress me if you can' expression on his face. He  trudged from painting to painting, unimpressed… that is, until he came  to a painting of a man covered in tattoos with a row of pins in his  forehead, called 'Masochist'. It caused him to burst out laughing! He  then went back and looked again at all the paintings he had just trudged  past, now taking his time and responding to them all. It confirmed for  me the importance of humour in art. 
       
All the shapes and forms my work takes,  have evolved over years. Painting clothes that resemble period clothing,  for example, happened naturally. At first because it just seemed right,  but I now realise that it brings to the work a sense of someone lost  and out of time, desperately trying to work out the universal question,  “What the hell am I doing here?”  Especially when modern items like a  can of coke or a scooter are included. Max Ernst once wrote that an  artist should have one foot in the subconscious and one in the  conscious. This, I think, is what I am trying to do.
       
-ALAN MACDONALD

When I begin a painting, I feel like I  am embarking on a journey, one in which I have no idea of the ultimate  destination. As a result there is a real sense of adventure and  excitement as you set sail into the unknown, armed only with a belief  that, one day, you will find a faraway beach on which to land.  Unfortunately, too often, the ship founders on the jagged rocks of  doubt, leaving your heart to sink into the inky depths, from where you  have to resurrect it. On the luckier voyages, though, you arrive  somewhere that is strangely familiar, but which you have never seen  before. It’s a distant coast of you.
        
-ALAN MACDONALD

Alan MacDonald is a brilliant artist, and I would be proud to hang his art within my home.

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