Rupert Gatfield’s paintings take us into quite another world, but what a world it is. With their meticulous, cool handling, uninflected by obvious painterly texture and their clean, brightly-coloured imagery that appears at first to be of a playful, toylike nature, they quietly, gently draw us in to what is almost a false imaginative expectation. Yet their febrile sharpness of focus and crispness of realisation are immediately if insidiously unsettling. As in the onset of a fever, or under a microscope, everything suddenly seems a degree too sharp, too big, too strange, too much alive.
And it is then that the true nature of Gatfield’s engagement begins to emerge. He is not openly polemical, yet his every work is laden with meaning, fraught with symbolism. This world of his, so pictorially alive, heaving with organic energy and growth, is at once both threatened and threatening. What are these fronds, weaving and sprouting from the pink earth; these molecular towers and honeycomb structures; these pods and seeds floating in the air; these parti-coloured, mutated creatures? These are questions he leaves us to ask.
Gatfield clearly falls within the broad scope of Surrealism and its antecedents – we think especially of Dali, Ernst and Magritte in the 20th century, and of such as Bosch in the past – yet he remains without question quite his own man.
Bill Packer September 2005
Aside from a few enlightened art teachers at school, Rupert Gatfield is self
taught. Born in Malaysia, the tropics are deeply routed in his psyche and
an "exotic otherness" still manifests itself in his paintings.
Inspiration for his new exhibition draws on world events, travelling in Mexico
and a passion for gardening.
His drawing, composition and application of paint are built up to render visions
of almost futuristic portent, although his inspiration is entirely grounded in
the natural world. His paintings are both a homage to nature and an at
times disquieting comment on 21st century man's new found ability to meddle with
it.
John Martin
AWARDS
| 1998 | Manchester Academy of Fine Arts, First prize and Secondary award |
| 1993 | Bordeaux Salon D’Hiver, Grand Prix |
EXHIBITIONS
| 2004 | John Martin Gallery, London, Solo Exhibition |
| 2002 | John Martin Gallery, London, Solo Exhibition |
| 2000 | Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London |
| 1998 | Manchester Academy for Fine Arts Open |
| Royal West of England Academy Open, Bristol | |
| 1997 | New Art Center, Boston, USA |
| Beaux Art Gallery, Group Exhibition, London | |
| 1996 | Beaux Art Gallery, Bath, Solo Exhibition |
| Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London | |
| Biennial D'Alcoi, Spain | |
| National Print Exhibition, London | |
| 1995 | Konicus Gallery, Bristol, Solo Exhibition |
| 1993 | Bordeaux, Salon D'Hiver, France |
| 1992 | Le Rire Bleu, Figeac, France |
| 1989 | Royal Overseas League, London |
| 1987 | Royal Academy Summer Exhibition |