CALLUM INNES

Provenance:
- Galerie Bob van Orsouw, Zurich.
- Purchased from the above in 1997 by the present owner, since then private collection Switzerland.

Today Callum Innes, who probably counts among the most well-known artists in Britain, has profoundly and consistently challenged his own abstract painting technique and constantly renews it. He studied at Gray’s School of Art from 1980 to 1984 and at Edinburgh College of Art until 1985. Since the 1990s he has worked in parallel on a dozen different series, which he entitles individually and is still developing, reworking and elaborating to this day.

The most comprehensive series is called “Exposed Painting”, which Callum Innes began in 1992. This will probably be the most important and well-known series of his oeuvre: the supports (mostly canvas or paper) are divided geometrically into different and unequal horizontal or vertical zones, which he covers in colour or monochrome. Before the paint has dried, he wipes much of the surface with turpentine. He calls this method “unpaint”, which is a disciplined geometric monochrome painting technique producing uncertain results, since it leaves behind traces of the original colours and new tones, as well as the impression of fluidity.

We see in the present work, a dark black for example accompanied by lighter areas, with transparent pigments of blue, violet or green. Each of his works is provided with the prefix “Exposed”, followed by the technical term for the colour which has been used.