THOMAS WHITTLE

”Before art had new moulded our behaviours, and taught our passions to talk an affected language, our manners were rustic but sincere and natural… [look to] the simplicity of primitive tastes: they offer a beautiful coast decked by the hands of nature, towards which we still turn our eyes”.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on Science and the Arts, 1750

Thomas Whittle’s exuberant paintings, drawings and sculptures create clashes between seemingly incompatible elements. Whittle cannot be easily pinned down to one style or one idea. Images, ideas and patterns from wildly different sources jostle for attention, creating something entirely of our time. His works begin from “the daily visual stimulants that inspire adoration and replication”, finding beauty in everyday images. Compressed onto one surface, they occupy “new imaginary settings” in shallow space. ‘High’ and ‘low’ have no meaning here. Though some passages in Whittle’s works are deliberately child-like or ‘naïve’, others display an immensely sophisticated handling of materials. Is one better than the other? Or are they co-dependent? Does what EH Gombrich called “the preference for the primitive” still generate more potent, direct and powerful images than ‘artfulness’? If you imagined you knew what ‘good’ painting is – think again, and prepare to be outmanoeuvred by an artist fleet of foot.

Text: Alistair Robinson. Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art.