Outing to Roche Court today, the New Art Centre sculpture park which is always beautifully atmospheric, whatever the weather (in today's case, grey and rainy). Craig Martin's colourful teapot looked strikingly cheerful in the drizzle, Gormley figures surprised you from behind a hedge, and Richard Long's path of flint and David Nash's burnt wood pieces looked satisfyingly at one with the Wiltshire landscape. In the gallery is the work of Kim Lim (1936-1997), a new name to me. I found the pieces instantly engaging: most of the work on show is sculpture in different types of stone (marble, Portland and granite) dressed and incised with simple flowing lines, creating a harmony of mutually respondent curves and receding planes. The exhibition was evocative of deep time, mass answered by space, the beautiful surface of stone given a rhythm by fissures and simple shapes. The work carries suggestions of Eastern philosophy, though apparently this artist was inspired at least as much by Cycladic sculpture, and Indian and South East Asian art as well as ancient Chinese vases: the common quality is a deep response to simple form, primal matter and simple but exquisitely judged decoration. Lim was Chinese-born but studied in St Martin's, settled in Britain and was married to William Turnbull. Her work could be placed in a minimalist context, suggesting through taut economical means elemental qualities of air and sea; it has the strange quality of the best minimal art and music of being cool and mathematical yet at the same time emotionally affecting. Equally the work could be set alongside Moore and Hepworth and an engagement through material with the flow of air, sea and earth. Above all it invites a meditative relationship, taking us to an experience of shapes and sensations in which contextual matters drift away. Nice to have the company and expert commentary of Kimvi Nguyen, who was especially taken by the 'Twelve Grey Colour Chart Paintings' (2013) by David Batchelor in the Artist's House. There is always exciting work to discover at Roche Court, and the idyllic setting between Stockbridge and Salisbury creates a viewing experience beguilingly different from that offered by the busy and trendy London galleries.
Monday, 7 April 2014
Kim Lim
Outing to Roche Court today, the New Art Centre sculpture park which is always beautifully atmospheric, whatever the weather (in today's case, grey and rainy). Craig Martin's colourful teapot looked strikingly cheerful in the drizzle, Gormley figures surprised you from behind a hedge, and Richard Long's path of flint and David Nash's burnt wood pieces looked satisfyingly at one with the Wiltshire landscape. In the gallery is the work of Kim Lim (1936-1997), a new name to me. I found the pieces instantly engaging: most of the work on show is sculpture in different types of stone (marble, Portland and granite) dressed and incised with simple flowing lines, creating a harmony of mutually respondent curves and receding planes. The exhibition was evocative of deep time, mass answered by space, the beautiful surface of stone given a rhythm by fissures and simple shapes. The work carries suggestions of Eastern philosophy, though apparently this artist was inspired at least as much by Cycladic sculpture, and Indian and South East Asian art as well as ancient Chinese vases: the common quality is a deep response to simple form, primal matter and simple but exquisitely judged decoration. Lim was Chinese-born but studied in St Martin's, settled in Britain and was married to William Turnbull. Her work could be placed in a minimalist context, suggesting through taut economical means elemental qualities of air and sea; it has the strange quality of the best minimal art and music of being cool and mathematical yet at the same time emotionally affecting. Equally the work could be set alongside Moore and Hepworth and an engagement through material with the flow of air, sea and earth. Above all it invites a meditative relationship, taking us to an experience of shapes and sensations in which contextual matters drift away. Nice to have the company and expert commentary of Kimvi Nguyen, who was especially taken by the 'Twelve Grey Colour Chart Paintings' (2013) by David Batchelor in the Artist's House. There is always exciting work to discover at Roche Court, and the idyllic setting between Stockbridge and Salisbury creates a viewing experience beguilingly different from that offered by the busy and trendy London galleries.
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