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The relationship between the human body and landscape was one of the
principal concerns that emerged in Lanyon’s mature work, and the
1954 painting 'Europa' was his first large-scale canvas to fully realise
a synthesis between the landscape and the body. Not only had Lanyon
fused the traditional modes of landscape and nude, but he had also created
a painting which steered a middle course between representation and
abstraction.
The present painting relates to the series of drawings and paintings
Lanyon made of the female nude prior to this great work. He experimented
with twisting the body into unconventional poses, and this vertical
arrangement, with the head at the base of the painting, was one he tried
several times (in 'Drawing for Europa' and 'Nude' (both 1954)). This
configuration allowed Lanyon to experiment with his interest in ambiguous
perspectives: it is not quite clear from the vertical foreshortening
whether the painter is situated behind a supine model’s head,
or whether an imaginary inversion has taken place, abstracted from the
reality. The painting is characteristic in its fast, gestural brushstrokes,
and corresponds with 'Nude' (1954) in its use of wandering dark strokes
over a flattened lighter base to explore bodily contours; such overpainted
contours are found throughout Lanyon's mature work, indicating motion
as well as defining by outline. The present work reaches an intense
climax in the lighter grey swirling at the head that synthesises the
dark grey and white of the body, producing a painterliness that is closer
to abstraction than to a rendition of hair. This moment is comparable
to the agitated circular climaxes of 'Thermal' and 'Rosewall' (1960).
Peter Maber.
References:
Andrew Causey, Peter Lanyon: Paintings, Drawings and Constructions,
p. 34.
Margaret Garlake, The Drawings of Peter Lanyon, pp. 61-2
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