Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe (b. 1945, UK)
Pink Square, 2014
Beauty and the Contemporary Sublime, 1996

I like the painting. I guess, it does have that ‘immediacy’ that Gilbert-Rolfe likes to write about. It offers a dynamic balance between order and irregularity, abstraction and suggestion of figuration (as in a woven pattern). I cannot take it all in right away, various details, relationships, contrasts, shifts come to my attention only if I give it some time, making it a durational encounter… There is something there that reminds me of what I am aiming for with my painting, but that connection is not obvious, I don’t think I can articulate it… my best guess would be in that it is more rewarding if you spend more time with it, that it is not exhaustible at a quick glance….

But then again, I came to check his paintings based on me reading his book, ‘Beauty and the Contemporary Sublime’. I’ve being thinking about the beauty and the sublime without much of theoretical background, yet finding them to be intriguing concepts that have been informing art too much to be overlooked. Remains to be seen if Gilbert-Rolfe makes me any wiser.