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| Police in a Van, Oil painting on board, 1982 |
Artistic Insight: On
11 January 2016, the Guildhall Art Gallery will be hosting a talk by Denzil
Forrester, one of the exhibiting artists at No
Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960 – 1990. A dynamic painter, Forrester rose to prominence
in 1980s Britain, depicting all areas of late-twentieth century London life –
from dance halls and carnivals to the deeper nuances of urban society. To tie in with his talk, this article explores
his artistic history and style. To reserve FREE tickets for the talk, click here.
Forrester was born in Grenada in 1956, moving to Britain
with his family, aged ten. He was one of a handful of artists to graduate with
an MA in Fine Art (Painting) from the Royal College of Art, after studying at
the Central School of Art and has had a dynamic career at home and abroad,
currently lecturing at Morley College.
Denzil Forrester’s kinetic and vibrant paintings evoke
soundscapes, dance halls and the urban life of London. His bold forms overwhelm
his canvases, building up rich tapestries of movement and kaleidoscopic light. His
paintings, often stricken with strobe, evoke pulsating masses of people and
movement, notably imaging the 1970/80s emergence of dub music and dance in
London.
While his work evokes the undulating shadows and limbs of
the Harlem Renaissance or the vivid prismatic angles of German Expressionism,
Forrester’s distinct style bares witness to the vibrancy of Black British
culture in the 1980’s. His large-scale works confront the senses and evoke
memories of music, are best seen in situ – photographs do their dynamism little
justice.
Whilst Denzil envisages electrifying scenes, encapsulating
the temporal and ephemeral space of young Londoners, he also subtly images the
social tensions of the time. ‘Police in a Van’, a oil painting on board (1982),
originally featured in a 1994 exhibition at The Storey Institute, Lancaster, called
‘Us an’ Dem’, exploring the tense relations and anxieties between the police
force and the Black community. This dark
and voyeuristic painting shows a distorted aerial view of police officers in a
van, their angular and furiously scribbled cobalt blue legs jutting into the
centre of the painting, drawing attention to the shadowed figure flattened on
the floor. Forrester creates a painting rich with psychological intensity, the
faces of the subjects blurred or concealed, focusing on the brute force of the
police and the submission of the body. This painting, however, does not suggest
a particularly unusual scene. The police
drive forward, focused on the road and the police legs are uniform and regular,
save the raised foot in the upper left-hand portion that jarringly reveals the
true violence of the painting. What is haunting about this piece is the form in
the centre, faceless and completely flattened, so much so it could be mistaken
for a shadow. Forrester’s ability to lend his bold use of colour and light to
such works exploring police brutality as well as the liveliness of the urban
musicality evince Forrester’s complexity of theme and characterisation that has
extended throughout his career.
In 1983 Forrester was awarded a scholarship to visit Rome
and cites this as influential in his exploration of colour and light. One work
produced during this period is Roman Fountain, oil on canvas, evincing
his iridescent acknowledgement of light within his work
s, as autonomous as
colour or form. As suggested by Eddie Chambers, his work also betrays an
affinity to the kinaesthetic animation of colour of Italian Futurism – though
it seems that Denzil had established this style before a possible exposure in
his time in Italy.  |
| Roman Fountain, Oil on board, 1984 |
Denzil
Forrester will be talking at the Guildhall Art Gallery from 12.30 – 2.30pm on
Monday 11 January 2016. To reserve FREE tickets to this event, click here.
