Christian Furr
Glissando Speculo 1, Glissando Speculo 2, Glissando Speculo 3 and Glissando Speculo 4
Acrylic, diamond dust and liquid charcoal with archival pigment print on Hahnemühle paper
All signed and artist’s proof aside from the series of 10
Each measures 69cm x 67cm (27.2″ x 26.4″)
Framed
69 x 67cm
5 Artists proofs
"In music "Glissando" means a continuous slide upwards or downwards between two notes. I liked the term. I thought it was the perfect descriptor for my new diamond dust series."
I think there are many links between art and music. Just as similar notes can vibrate in chanting so too can a colour react with the colour that it is next to..
"I am fascinated by colour frequencies and colour relativity. My Glissando series features sets of four. One Jouissance motif going from one colour to another complementary colour - gradually and almost imperceptibly.
"My Jouissance vision conjures up many possibilities: celestial sensation, ecstasy, spirit, destruction, ephemerality, orgasm, a blossoming flower. It becomes an instant symbol for the release of energy and emotion that is life itself.
It has become my personal vanitas motif - It is about the brevity of life with the everlasting nature of Love. It appears like a beautiful moment in the darkness. It is a painting of something that is apparently ceasing to exist that will hopefully exist forever. A firework or a comet becoming one with the universe which surrounds it.
But you don't need to know the reason why I created it or what it even is. Once you're dealing on a non verbal level, ambiguity should be a prerequisite. The jouissance paintings can and should be interpreted in many different ways as they are about formlessness and sensation: It can be whatever you want it to be...
“The Vanitas concept stands for vanity of humankind and the brevity of life which is expressed in Vanitas painting by juxtaposing a symbol of life with one for death... The image of life seems ever more precious when it is shown to be fleeting.” - Ora Lerman'Contemporary Vanitas', Arts Magazine, 1988
They are works depicting the artist's personal 'Vanitas' motif: a distinctive, luminescent explosion emerging from the darkness in various forms, inspired by a genre made popular in 17th Century Dutch and Flemish painting using symbols to remind the viewer of the transience of life. Each piece is titled with lines from love poems to evoke different emotions. Colours range from pale to vivid blues, pinks, mauves, reds and greens.
The collection includes original paintings alongside hand-finished mono-prints, both on canvas and paper and some coated with diamond dust.
The idea for the series originally came in 2009 when Furr saw a stock film of a computer generated explosion at a VFX company. After slowing it down and playing it backwards and forwards, he realised it would make a poetic image about time; immortalising in paint a visual effect (that didn’t actually exist) of something ceasing to exist. The first painting in the series ‘The Emancipation of the Dissonance’ was created in 2011. After the original oil paintings, the hand finished coloured works were created - the oil paintings scanned then altered digitally and coloured. The coloured images are then printed and, if they are canvases, painted over and diamond dust is applied on the top of particular pieces. The title for the series ‘Jouissance’ is a French word meaning physical or intellectual pleasure, delight or ecstasy and refers to love itself.
As Christian Furr says :
“It is an open celebration of the sensory because that is what pure colour is. All the different colours conjure different feelings. For me, the yellow reminds me of sunshine, the blue has mystery or another worldly feeling, but everybody has their own instinctive response. The explosion is at once a symbol of chaos and release with the colours adding to the sensation. My Jouissance paintings are about formlessness and what lies beyond”.
The explosion as a symbol or motif could be seen as the logical
conclusion of artists fascination over the centuries with ‘De Natura, Vanitas’ and effect.
"Like artists and poets before him, Furr explores themes fundamental to the human condition. His works are among the most beautiful vanitas - dialogues about life and death, portrayals of beauty and ephemerality encapsulated in an image of something exploding. The 'something' here is the ambiguity in these jewel-like works with each work bringing mystery, allowing the viewer to see many things - a flower, a sprite, a blossom, for instance. " - Noon Powell
"Known as a colourist and a consummate paint-handler, Christian’s influences are remarkably diverse. Apart from the visual arts, music and literature are integral; he is a voracious reader, an omnivorous listener. Inspiration arrives from many directions – a fragment of Rumi poetry, a lyric from The Doors, a quote from Bukowski, William Blake sonnets, the film Zabriskie Point by Antonioni. The symbols of his far-reaching interests find their way into his work, sometimes overtly, sometimes submerged."
Fran Kaufman
Liu Shiming Art Foundation
Provenance
Exhibitions
Group show (2019) at RedHouse Originals, Harrogate, United Kingdom
Literature
Christian Furr won recognition of his enormous talent early in his career. At just 28 he was the youngest artist commissioned to paint an official portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, personally selected from among dozens of other painters. As is typical of Christian, he approached the project with a unique point of view, showing both the regal and human qualities of Her Majesty.
During his early career while Furr was highly sought after for his portrait commissions, the superbly talented painter simultaneously followed the strong tradition of representation in British modern and contemporary art throughout his oeuvre. Today Christian focuses on keeping oil paint a fresh contemporary medium, and is continually interested in experimentation and exploration of new concepts. Like an earlier generation that included Lucien Freud and David Hockney, Christian examines everyday objects and human emotional connections with equal interest, looking to reach the essential nature of his chosen subject, be it a member of the royal family, an enigmatic couple, a flower, a still-life or a measure of cheese.
Known as a colourist and a consummate paint-handler, Christian’s influences are remarkably diverse. Apart from the visual arts, music and literature are integral; he is a voracious reader, an omnivorous listener. Inspiration arrives from many directions – a fragment of Rumi poetry, a lyric from The Doors, a quote from Bukowski, William Blake sonnets, the film Zabriskie Point by Antonioni. The symbols of his far-reaching interests find their way into his work, sometimes overtly, sometimes submerged.
Over the years Furr’s desire to broaden his artistic language has led to well-received collaborations with other artists, including neon-artist Chris Bracey. It was while working with Bracey on Liverpool Love and Staying Alive that Christian began to incorporate more vibrant color into his own work. His signature nuanced palette expanded to adapt pure color, allowing him to experiment more freely and also reach a broader audience. Like some of Furr’s more notable contemporaries, such as British YBA Damien Hirst and the American painter Eric Fischl, one can glimpse in Christian’s trajectory the depth of study and training that leads an accomplished artist toward global recognition.
Furr’s latest series Jouissance was born after viewing an artificially generated explosion in a lab, a visual that remained with him as a conceptual framework. Referencing the spectacular ending of Zabriskie Point, a five-minute sequence of a single explosion, repeated in super slow motion, demonstrates the abstract quality of film itself. Actual objects are transformed into a riot of color and form.
Taking it further into contemporary language, Christian became interested in the elemental quality of the “fake” explosion, the special effects used to create “reality”. Employing a traditional treatment of the subject, he adopts Warhol’s fascination with mass-production, making multiple versions of a single image. Diamond dust and artificially high color are used to enhance the “special effects”: each canvas is a unique variation, with the artist’s hand and eye altering the single image into an infinite kaleidoscopic view of a one-time event.
The literal translation of Jouissance is physical or intellectual pleasure, delight, or ecstasy. According to the artist, it is the duality of both mind and body that led him to the title for this painting cycle. Intended as an ongoing series, he will continue to explore perception of the artificial and the actual, eventually working with each of the four essential elements in Western culture: earth, air, fire and water. As always, Christian will push the limits of traditional painting while at the same time taking the underlying concepts to new heights.
Christian Furr’s continuous investigations have enabled him to successfully pursue his artistic vision with both passion and intellect. Since achieving his early renown, he has built a devoted and growing following, placing his work in many of the top university and private collections in Britain.
– Fran Kaufman 2015