Chris Gollon
Last Radio Playing No.9 (after Bob Dylan), 2015
acrylic on paper
30 x 22 in
76.2 x 55.9 cm
76.2 x 55.9 cm
Copyright the Artist's Estate
This painting takes its title and partial inspiration from Bob Dylan's song 'Shooting Star' ('Oh Mercy!' album, 1989). 'In early 2015, listening to Bob Dylan’s Shooting Star, and the lyric...
This painting takes its title and partial inspiration from Bob Dylan's song 'Shooting Star' ('Oh Mercy!' album, 1989).
"In early 2015, listening to Bob Dylan’s Shooting Star, and the lyric “last radio playing”, Gollon decided to suppress subject matter entirely, in order to focus wholly on colour. Retaining his boyhood interest in and aptitude for maths, he was fascinated by the relationship between music, mathematics and colour. He re-read Johannes Itten’s classic tome 'The Art of Colour', and set about painting 10 images of a last radio playing, each using different combinations of colour contrasts. Yet, as Nick Soulsby notes, despite this mathematical approach, Gollon’s ability to infuse a still life with a human essence nonetheless shines through." Excerpt from the foreword by exhibition curator and catalogue editor, David Tregunna, for the museum retrospective 'CHRIS GOLLON: Beyond the Horizon' (2019 - 2020).
" [..]. One of Gollon’s signatures was his approach to human hands and, in this series [Last Radio Playing], what I admire is his ability to portray presence and absence simultaneously: everything on the table relies on those invisible hands, turning the dial on the radio, raising a glass, pouring the wine, revealing the cards – there are hands all over and not one in sight. By the same sleight of hand, not a single person is present, yet humanity is everywhere: I see Gollon reminiscing on a memory I can never share, with someone on the other side of the table that I can never know; I see a universal moment, two people in contemplation of one another, knowing their own cards, taking a chance on what the other might hold; I see my own memories of timeless nights over wine and warm tones; I feel the gaze of the onlooker stood in a gallery gazing at a still life and wondering what their own life might choose to reveal. And beneath it all I can hear music, I can see its impact on the canvas, and I can feel how important it was to Gollon himself." Nick Soulsby, excerpt from text in the exhibition catalogue 'CHRIS GOLLON: Beyond the Horizon'.
"In early 2015, listening to Bob Dylan’s Shooting Star, and the lyric “last radio playing”, Gollon decided to suppress subject matter entirely, in order to focus wholly on colour. Retaining his boyhood interest in and aptitude for maths, he was fascinated by the relationship between music, mathematics and colour. He re-read Johannes Itten’s classic tome 'The Art of Colour', and set about painting 10 images of a last radio playing, each using different combinations of colour contrasts. Yet, as Nick Soulsby notes, despite this mathematical approach, Gollon’s ability to infuse a still life with a human essence nonetheless shines through." Excerpt from the foreword by exhibition curator and catalogue editor, David Tregunna, for the museum retrospective 'CHRIS GOLLON: Beyond the Horizon' (2019 - 2020).
" [..]. One of Gollon’s signatures was his approach to human hands and, in this series [Last Radio Playing], what I admire is his ability to portray presence and absence simultaneously: everything on the table relies on those invisible hands, turning the dial on the radio, raising a glass, pouring the wine, revealing the cards – there are hands all over and not one in sight. By the same sleight of hand, not a single person is present, yet humanity is everywhere: I see Gollon reminiscing on a memory I can never share, with someone on the other side of the table that I can never know; I see a universal moment, two people in contemplation of one another, knowing their own cards, taking a chance on what the other might hold; I see my own memories of timeless nights over wine and warm tones; I feel the gaze of the onlooker stood in a gallery gazing at a still life and wondering what their own life might choose to reveal. And beneath it all I can hear music, I can see its impact on the canvas, and I can feel how important it was to Gollon himself." Nick Soulsby, excerpt from text in the exhibition catalogue 'CHRIS GOLLON: Beyond the Horizon'.