Robert Medley

Figuration on White

1963

© The estate of Robert Medley

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Not on display

Artist: Robert Medley 1905–1994
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 870 × 1527 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Purchased 1963
Reference: T00628

Catalogue entry

T00628 FIGURATION ON WHITE 1963

Not inscribed.
Canvas, 34 1/4×60 1/8 (87×153).
Purchased from the artist through the Whitechapel Art Gallery 1963.
Exh: Whitechapel Art Gallery, November–December 1963 (114, repr. pl.20).

This painting, the last in the artist's retrospective exhibition of 1963, is one of a number of ‘Figurations’, near-abstract but retaining some reference to the human figure, e.g. ‘Coloured Figuration (Torso)’ 1963 (repr. exh. cat., Whitechapel, 1963, pl.17). However, ‘The closer I look as an isolated act, the more illusory nature becomes. Appearance is purely accidental. Prolonged attachment to and contemplation of a subject leads me to the conclusion that I am not dealing any more with objects but with analogies. I need to break down a separation between myself and the subject. Neither can take place without the presence of the other’ (statement by the artist in Whitechapel exh. cat., 1963, p.10).

Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, II