Nicholas Pope at Richard Saltoun Gallery, London

 

Despite his disappearance from the art scene due to illness, one of the most notable contemporary artists of the British art world is back with a solo exhibition. Australian-born Nicholas Pope is currently being exhibited at Richard Saltoun Gallery in London.

If you know the story of the artist you will probably stop by the gallery to search for references to his disease and to past and negative experiences. If  you overlook the obvious, it is not like this. It looks more like a love story. His career was cut short in 1985 with the diagnosis of a debilitating illness during a visit to the Makonda tribe to study wood carving, and which led to the abandonment of work and a 10-year struggle to recover his health. 

The current show could be considered a small “retrospective” of the artist. It encompasses works of art from the 1970s to more recent works. Notable is the selection of drawings from the 1980s, especially Black Balls, and exhibited for the first time, Red Eight Holes.

9421_1000Nicholas Pope, Red Eight Holes, 1981. Oil bar on paper, 201 x 335 cm

9420_1000Nicholas Pope, Black Balls, 1981 Oil crayon on paper, 195 x 470 cm

Pope was best known in the 1970s and early 1980s for his large-scale sculptures and the use of a wide range of stones and woods. Lately he has moved towards softer, more malleable materials such as glass, moulded aluminium and ceramics.

The perfect summary of this excursus is the representation of the artist himself and his wife. Displaying a wide range of artworks produced in different decades and with varying materials, he remains faithful just to one thing: love.

The new cloth sculpture at the back of the gallery, Mr and Mrs Pope knitted, shrunk and hung, 2012, is a portrait of he and his wife Janet made of knitted felt mohair. This is the ninth version in the Mr and Mrs Pope series standing over 37 years of married life.

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Nicholas Pope, Mr and Mrs Pope, 2012 Knitted felted mohair, height 135cm

The couple represented in the newest work is a peaceful one in harmony. The two of them are hanging by threads, possibly signifying the threads of life.

The artist explains that in their long life and love story, like the majority of couples, the Popes have had moments of happiness and insecurity.

He confesses, “During my entire life, I’ve never stopped loving my wife, now I know it and this is the reason why I am still with her. But when I produced Mr and Mrs Pope in 1987 I must have thought that I was not so in love anymore …”

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Nicholas Pope, Mr and Mrs Pope Spiked and Holed, 1987 Painted wood, height 225 cm

Unlike the more recent Mr and Mrs Pope, the 1987 sculpture represents a petrified couple and expresses anxiety, unhappiness, and static nature. In brief everything that love shouldn’t be.

by Fausta Maria Bolettieri

All images courtesy of the Richard Saltoun Gallery

Richard Saltoun Gallery  111 Great Titchfield Street, London W1W 6RY

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7637 1225

Email: info@richardsaltoun.com

Opening Hours: Monday – Friday, 10 am – 6 pm