Dan McCarthy

Dan McCarthy’s paintings fascinate in their seeming. However, the apparent simple, intuitive paintings have been painted in a careful manner. By applying the oil paint in very thin layers to the canvas, one after the other, he is creating almost water colour-style paintings that strike as sketchy. Again the artist is showing his interest in the human body. The depicted figures - for the greater part naked – seem to be in a parallel universe. Stripped of a background that only distracts, the figures are crawling, squatting or staring into the surrounding emptiness. With occasionally an attribute such as a fish, a bird or diving goggles the paintings are referring to space and freedom.

In his paintings Dan McCarthy is not only referring to the human body but he is also using man as his subject. Regarding this, there’s an important part for the backgrounds. Dan McCarthy places his figures either in front of a white background, which allows as much space as possible for the psychological aspects, or in front of woven nets, that refer to barricade and even to setting traps. By painting his figures with a blue skin and red eyes and liberating them from decorum and frame he is trying to detach the viewer from his indoctrinated observation. By not making any concessions to rendering ‘reality’ Dan McCarthy sheds a new light on the classical theme of figure study. ‘I wanted to create timeless portraits more of how I feel rather than what I see and more of what could be rather than what is’, says the artist.

The exhibition coincides with a publication about the new work of Dan McCarthy with an essay by Rudi Fuchs, published by Annet Gelink Gallery, Anton Kern Gallery In New York and Hassla Books.