- Artist
- Michael Armitage born 1984
- Medium
- Ink on paper
- Dimensions
- Support: 235 × 312 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Presented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 2020
- Reference
- T15847
Summary
Armitage has described how drawing is a central part of his practice; he draws prolifically and over time works out how to use the subject matter in them as elements within his paintings. In a spoken interview discussing his paintings and drawings that were included in the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019, May You Live In Interesting Times, curated by Ralph Rugoff, Armitage said: ‘[The drawings] are the beginning and the most integral part of my practice, in that all the images that I’ll put together to make the paintings begin with that.’ (‘Michael Armitage on May You Live In Interesting Times’, 12 June 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVfef8OkSuE&t=3s, accessed 15 September 2019.)
The significance of drawing in Armitage’s practice, and the way in which works such as these studies form a source of iconography in his painting, is part of what the art historian and curator Catherine Lampert has referred to as his ‘synthetic’ approach: ‘His approach is synthetic but various in terms of composition; sometimes shapes flow, occasionally images are cut and pasted, he experiments with florid colour and sinuous line, and eventually the elements click into place.’ (Catherine Lampert, ‘Michael Armitage: Apparitions and Habitats’, in White Cube 2015, p.29.)
Further reading
Michael Armitage, exhibition catalogue, White Cube, London 2015.
Helen Delaney
September 2019
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