Prints of the Month: November 2020
John Carter RA, Thirds I & II
Date: 2019
Size (cm - unframed): 35 x 35
Technique: Screenprint on TH Saunders Hot Press Soft White 300gsm
Edition size: 50
Best known for his minimalist constructions, the work of Royal Academician sculptor John Carter explores geometry through a practice that straddles sculpture and painting. His three-dimensional ‘wall-objects’ make use of absences and deep shadow exploring solidity, surface and illusion.
It is from such an example exhibited in the RA Summer Exhibition in 2017, that our selected Prints of the Month make reference. Moving from plywood and paint onto ink and paper, this collection of works, titled ‘Thirds’, are built around a carefully coordinated group of flaming red elements .
It is through the flexible process of screenprint, the artist is able to layer and experiment with shape, colour and sequencing, continuing his ongoing investigation into mathematical reductions and the manipulation of geometric forms.
A sequence of mathematical reductions make up Thirds I & Thirds II, the two prints produced with the studio in 2019, conceived as a diptych. These precise images are deceivingly complex in the assembly of their elements.
The artworks were initially explored as preparatory gouache studies.
These resulting prints are a continuation of Carter’s work on the subject of areas. Where in past works his interest was in the halving of areas, here he develops the new possibilities created by the division into thirds.
A high level of precision was required in the printing. Each colour must only touch one another and not overlap. Such attention to construction makes no allowances for the expansion or contraction of the paper.
The paper itself makes a contribution to the prints with the hot pressed surface giving them a subtle matt-ness and allows the shapes to speak without any surface interference. This effectively compliments the quiet minimalist aesthetic to Carter’s work.
John Carter RA is a central figure in the thread of British abstraction taking some of his inspiration from the European concrete and constructivist artists of the early twentieth century. He holds a considerable reputation for his minimalist but illusionist works. Frequently exhibiting in Europe, his cool and distinctive pieces are something of a fixture in the RA summer show.
Carter is represented by the Redfern Gallery.
Read more on prints produced by John Carter RA and Kip Gresham on the IFPDA Viewing Room page here