In focus: A mon seul désir: Sound by Anita Taylor
From 29 January 2025, we will have A mon seul désir: Sound by Anita Taylor on show in The Entrance Hall at Drawing Projects UK. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to showcase this painting here, courtesy of Vision Art Platform (Istanbul). The Entrance Hall is open daily, Monday to Friday 8am to 4pm and Saturdays and Sundays 10am to 3pm, when Arthaus Coffee is open.
One of a series of six paintings, inspired by the in a major cycle of paintings that explore the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries held in the Cluny Museum in Paris. This series of six paintings developed through extensive research into the images, iconography and related tapestries, artefacts, literature, drawings, and frescoes. Initially attracted to these tapestries by their formal qualities - of the carpet or ‘island’ on which the figures occupy an enclosed and differentiated reality; the high key colour; the female subject matter and the animated relationships of animals, people and plants - the exploration of the iconography led Taylor to further explore notions of duality. The act of transcription in making the paintings enabled an exploration of the iconography and meaning of the tapestries, an understanding of the context as source material and related artefacts, and established a potential reading for the central subjects of these enigmatic images. The underlying themes around the question of nature and constructed realities led her to make further associations to medieval literature and art.
Each tapestry represents one of the five senses: sight, taste, touch, sound and smell; the sixth may be seen to represent the medieval concept of the ‘sixth sense’, of the intellect or the soul, or the renunciation of the passion of the indulged senses. Perhaps it is, more effectively, a sense of intuition or contemplation, embodied in the act of looking upon, as the lion and the unicorn regard the central character withdrawing from the(ir) world that she inhabits. The resultant paintings deal with the senses, sensuality, the notion of a suspended reality, themes of duality, and the simultaneous representation of freedom and imprisonment, and are linked to the early English narrative of Tristan and Yseut (The Romance of Tristan, Beroul). The painting is shown alongside three ink drawings that relate to this interpretation.
Anita Taylor's solo exhibition, Moonraker, curated by Firat Arapoğlu for Vision Art Platform in Istanbul, Türkiyë, opened on 29 November 2024 and continues until 15 March 2025. The exhibition features 29 drawings and paintings, including a new major series of paintings and drawings entitled Moonrakers, that give the exhibition its title, drawings from the Witness Series: Asikli Höyük (2022), and three of the A mon seul désir series (Sight, Taste, Touch) amongst other ink and charcoal drawings.
Anita Taylor is an award-winning artist who studied at the Royal College of Art (1985-87); was Artist-in-Residence at Durham Cathedral 1987-88]; Cheltenham Fellow in Painting [1988-89]; Artist-in-Residence, NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service & National Art School in Sydney, Australia [2004]. Recent solo exhibitions include: Moonraker, Vision Art Platform, Istanbul, Türkiye (2024-25); Witness, Young Gallery, Salisbury [2018]; DRAWN, The Customs House, South Shields [2017]; William Wright Artists Projects, Sydney [2014]; The Drawing Room, Sydney [2011]; Peter Pinson Gallery, Sydney [2009]; The Drawing Gallery [2009, 2004]. Recent group shows include Kazr Izleri / Lines of Site first presented in Istanbul and touring to Dundee, Barcelona and Aksaray [2022], for which she made a major series of large drawings in response to the Neolithic settlement of Asikl Höyuk in CentralAnatolia as part of an EU-funded project. Other group exhibitions have recently included: G.R.I.T. at Kunstpunkt Berlin and Drawing Projects Scotland (2024); The Global Centre for Drawing, Langford120, Melbourne [2018, 2013, 2011];Jerwood Gallery, Hastings [2019, 2016, 2014]. Her work is included in the collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum, Jerwood Collection, Chippenham Museum, Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum, Royal West of England Academy. Awards include the Malvern Award for Drawing [1993]; Drawing Award, Hunting Art Prize [1999]; First Prize, Hunting Art Prize [2000]. She is the founding Director of the annual Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize exhibition since 1994, a Professor of Fine Art (since 2002), and the current Dean of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design at the University of Dundee (since 2019).
