At Play Within the Grip of the Grid:
The Work of Charles Harper
Charles Harper
Foreword –
Charles Harper, for many years now, a very well established painter firmly set
at the highest levels among his peers in the practice of contemporary art in
Ireland, enjoys that rare good fortune of having had excellent written,
published accounts of his art that detail succinctly the representational themes
and the design practices that give character to his work. There seems no need
to repeat or paraphrase these previous accounts here in a brief catalogue
commentary for the 2008 exhibition at Gormleys Gallery in Belfast. Any of the
audience whose interests get caught and drawn into Harper’s work could not
do better than to consult them first hand; they are readily available. 1
Art is one of the permanent and necessary forms of all spiritual activity.
…(it is ) the presupposition of all other spiritual activities…the material
out of which they are all made….
Art is the kingdom of the child: and anyone who wants to enter it must
enter it as a child. …every child is an artist…every artist is a child.
Civilisation is the enemy of art….Partly…because... art is …a
childish thing. But civilisation can never destroy art, because
man never ceases to be a child….
Re: The Grid
The approach taken here will try to bring to mind the important, general ways
Harper’s work forms a pertinent commentary on the world and on the
civilisation that he and his audiences inhabit.
Upon serious reflection it should be evident to anyone that this civilised world
remains one completely dominated by the Grid. In all sorts of readily apparent
and deeply hidden ways the Grid as an engineered, structural pattern of
organisation impinges on us everywhere, in everything we do, not only, but
especially, in urban-suburban contexts, and above all in the intensely
technological, consumer environment in which we live (and die). 2
Re: The Grip
The Grid, within its imposing limits, brings on both benefits and hindrances; it
domesticates us.3 Harper’s themes, so deeply committed to the gridded
pattern sets out for us in his work examples of how he copes with the Grid, how
he recognises its presence among us, how it influences our behaviour and gives
character to our world. In various ways his work shows us how to suffer, how
to struggle and survive and how to celebrate the Grid in whose grip we (and he
as well) come into self- knowledge.
Re: Play
The activity that Harper engages in as an artist and that he in turn invites us to
engage in as well, through his paintings actually relates to, resembles, a form of
play, a term that brings to mind that kind of intuitive, candid, creative
behaviour characteristic of children, a behaviour much admired, envied and
emulated by most, if not all, artists since the Modern Art period began.
The thoughts of R.G. Collingwood as found in the following extended excerpts
leads us to consider the special significance that lies in the activities of artists
and children which this text identifies by the term, play. These quotations
come from the book, The Philosophy of Enchantment. 4
1
Especially relevant are the essay “Head, Body & Grid” by Gerry Walker, and
the remarkable Aidan Dunne interview with the artist in Profile 7 – Charles Harper,
published by Gandon Editions, Oysterhaven, Kinsale, Co. Cork, 1997, and, in the catalogue
to the Charles Harper 2007 exhibition held at Gormleys Gallery in Dublin: Aidan Dunne’s
forward “Themes and Variations” and Harper’s own statement “Journey”.
2
Fascinating, instructive evidence for the pervasive role of the Grid comes
through the Discovery Channel’s programmes: How It’s Made and How They Do It
3
Major reference works on this concern are: Siegfried Giedion, Mechanisation
Takes Command, A Contribution To An Anonymous History, N.Y., W.W. Norton, 1969; and
Jacques Ellul: The Technological Society, NY, Knopf, 1964, and The Technological Bluff,
Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1990.
4
These excerpts are taken from the essay: “The Philosophy of Art” (1924), as
…art has about it something of the character of a resurrection:
it is a breaking of…habit and tradition,…the emergence of something
startling…wilfully childish.
If art is the characteristic activity of the child, it is an activity whose
aim is to transcend itself. The child’s aim is to grow up; the aim of
art is to grow up into knowledge. Hence art is a self-education of
the spirit. Education means the pursuit of a certain activity not for
what it is but for what it leads to.
It is assumed with hope that the reader of this text will be able to recognise the
potential relevancy that the idea of ‘play’, offered here, has with
Collingwood’s statements on the importance of the child in art. As well, the
remarks he makes about civilisation in this regard relate directly to the idea
of the ‘Grip of the Grid’ referred to above. A study of the resource texts on
Harper’s work referred to above (in foot-note 1.) will further the relevancy of
Collingwood’s position on the matter.
Re: Charles Harper
As an artist Harper fits into the modernist generation, that third, post WWII,
generation; the one that lies between the rule of the academy, against which
Modernism (in its first generation) rebelled and the current generation which, it
is fair to say, operates under its own rule. This current rule fosters a
pervasive bias for artwork that favours naturalistic ends gained through the
means of lens-screen based media. Both rules, the academic and the current
(which some call Post-Modern, though perhaps a more apt label is
Para-Modern), are characterised by procedures that subordinate concern for
design to forms of naturalism. These techniques emphasise the linear,
sequential, connected, narrative display of literal-visual representation. It
reigns again today as in Pre-Modern times but is now found in the widespread
commitment on the part of artists to the dominant media of photography, film
and video.
As a painter Harper shares the Modernist concern for the paramount
importance of design in artistic expression, not allowing it to be relegated as it
was in the days of the Pre-Modern Academy to merely a support mechanism
for copying into literal-visual representations the (natural) look of things in
the world around us. As it happened Harper himself was instrumental in that
Modernist rebellion against the academy rule (itself based on the Rule of Grid)
the latter stages of which took place in Ireland in the 1960s.
found in the book The Philosophy of Enchantment , Studies in Folktale, Cultural Criticism,
and Anthropology by R.G. Collingwood; edited by David Boucher, Wendy James and
Phillip Smallwood; Clarendon Press; Oxford; 2005; pp. 74-77.
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2
A significant part of that Modernist change in priorities, present in all its various
styles and in all its forms of Idealism, was the renewed role it advocated for
the audience, a participatory role: active expression rather than passive, one
of collaboration with the artist in the art activity, the conscious expression of
emotion, in the making of meaning.
Collingwood in the following citations also speaks of this role of the artist in
relation to the audience:
[Artists do not] produce their work for themselves alone; they rely on a more or
less sympathetic audience, and they desire not so much to instruct this
audience as to put to it more clearly what it is already thinking and feeling
obscurely.5
This means that the artist and the audience have a common share in what the
artwork expresses; the artist serves as the “audience’s spokesman, saying for it
the things it wants to say but cannot say unaided.”…
If what he is trying to do is to express emotions that are not his own merely,
but his audience’s as well, his success in doing this will be tested by his audience’s
reception of what he has to say. What he says will be something that his audience
says through his mouth; and his satisfaction in having expressed what he feels will
be at the same time, in so far as he communicates this expression to them, their
satisfaction in having expressed what they feel. There will thus be something
more than mere communication from artist to audience, there will be
collaboration between audience and artist. 6
1
Perhaps it is the case that in art, as it is said about voters and their politicians,
the audience gets the artists it deserves. Therefore our audiences are very
fortunate in having Charles Harper still at work among us, still encouraging us
by offering us the opportunities of creative collaboration, of having our art lead
us into an increase in self-knowledge.
©Paul M. O’Reilly
Limerick / Moycarkey
January 2008
5
Ibid. p.
6
R. G. Collingwood, The Principles of Art, Oxford University Press,
London, 1938, p.312
3
The Other Candidates
30” x 40”
Acrylic on canvas
4
5
Monks of Ballinskelligs
40” x 40”
Acrylic on canvas
6
Mid Race
40” x 30”
Acrylic on canvas
7
Citizens
24” x 24”
Acrylic on canvas
8
Dance
24” x 29”
Acrylic on linen
9
Diversion
40” x 30”
Acrylic on canvas
10
Beehive II
32” x 40”
Acrylic on linen
11
Converged
40” x 40”
Acrylic on canvas
12
Girl
18” x 24”
Acrylic on linen
13
Family Aspirants
24” x 32”
Acrylic on canvas
14
15
Aspirant Family
40” x 40”
Acrylic on canvas
16
Desisted Race
40” x 40”
Acrylic on canvas
17
Monks Arrival
32” x 40”
Acrylic on linen
18
Crew United
38” x 36”
Acrylic on canvas
19
Monks of Ballinskelligs II
18” x 24”
Acrylic on linen
20
Female Personas II
24” x 29”
Acrylic on linen
21
The Candidates
40” x 40”
Acrylic on canvas
22
Skellig Arrival
18” x 24”
Acrylic on linen
23
Beehive 1
30” x 40”
Acrylic on canvas
24
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Charles Harper AOSDANA RHA –
Born
1943 Ireland
Studied
1958-9 Studied Film Making at Fisherkoesen Film Studios, Bonn, Germany
1961-7 National College of Art, Dublin, Limerick School of Art
1965-6 Awarded Study Scholarship at The Dublin Graphic Studio
Presently Lecturer in Fine Art at Limerick School of Art & Design
Awards
Received 8 major open awards in Ireland including:
1965
1966
1971
First Prize Interpretation of the Devine Comedy, Commemorating Dante’s birth, presented by Institute Italiano de Cultura
First Prize for his painting commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the 1916 Rising, Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin
The Carrolls Open Award, Irish Exhibition of Living Art, National Gallery
Founding member of the AOSDANA and an RHA
International Exhibitions representing Ireland
Bianco e Nero, Lugano, Switzerland
First Trinnial India, National Gallery of Modern Art
Lalit Kala, Delhi, India
International Biennial of Graphic Art Florence, Italy
Die International Kunstmesse, Basel, Switzerland
Seven Irish Painters, Gallery R Stockholm, Sweden
Contemporary Irish Art Angela Flowers Gallery, London.
ARTEDER 82 Muestra International de Opra Grafica, Bilboa, Spain
BELTINE Quimper Brittany, France
PlENERS, Cecis, Cesu Museum & Riga, Latvia
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Public Collections
The Arts Council, Dublin
Limerick City Art Gallery
Allied Irish Banks, Dublin & London
Hugh Lane Municipal, Gallery of Modern Art Dublin
Ulster Museum, Belfast
Crawford Art Gallery, Cork
National Self Portrait Collection, University of Limerick
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Verbatum collection, USA
Cecis Art Museum, Latvia
Pontravedra Museum of Art, Spain
AIB collection
Paintings in many Irish Embassies throughout the World
Solo Exhibitions
He has had many one-man shows since 1966, Most recent shows:
1996
Retrospective Show Sligo Art Gallery, travelled to Hunt Museum, Limerick & Tig Fili, Cork
2003
Doswell Gallery, Limerick, Ireland
2004
One Man Show, Wexford
2005
Hallward Gallery, Dublin
2006
Russell Gallery, Co Clare
2006
United Arts Club, Dublin
2007
Gormleys Fine Art, Dublin
Exhibits Regularly in Open & Invited Exhibitions in Ireland and abroad
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List of Illustrations –
The Other Candidates
Monks of Ballinskelligs
Mid Race
Citizens
Dance
Diversion
Beehive II
Converged
Girl
Family Aspirants
Aspirant Family
Desisted Race
Monks Arrival
Crew United
Monks of Ballinskelligs II
Female Personas II
The Candidates
Skellig Arrival
Beehive 1
30” x 40”
40” x 40”
40” x 30”
24” x 24”
24” x 29”
40” x 30”
32” x 40”
40” x 40”
18” x 24”
24” x 32”
40” x 40”
40” x 40”
32” x 40”
38” x 36”
18” x 24”
24” x 29”
40” x 40”
18” x 24”
30” x 40”
Acrylic on canvas
Acrylic on canvas
Acrylic on canvas
Acrylic on canvas
Acrylic on linen
Acrylic on canvas
Acrylic on linen
Acrylic on canvas
Acrylic on linen
Acrylic on canvas
Acrylic on canvas
Acrylic on canvas
Acrylic on linen
Acrylic on canvas
Acrylic on linen
Acrylic on Linen
Acrylic on canvas
Acrylic on linen
Acrylic on canvas
Complete exhibition can be viewed online at www.gormleys.ie
All paintings are available for purchase on receipt of this catalogue
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