Noon Powell Fine Art is delighted to present for the first time, a dedicated and comprehensive exhibition of British artist, Christian Furr's iconic and celebrated 'Jouissance' series. Works with titles taken from lines of love poems, depicting the artist's personal 'Vanitas' motif: a distinctive, luminescent explosion emerging from the darkness in various forms.
The artist will be in attendance at the opening and the show will also feature unreleased new works.
Like artists and poets before him, British artist Christian 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 deliberate because the ambiguity in these jewel-like works is intentional. Each work brings mystery and allows the viewer to see many things in the formlessness. A flower, a sprite, a blossom.
Furr's first 'Jouissance' painting was created in 2011 and the series has evolved since then. The old masterly oil paintings have become the basis for strangely captivating diamond dust works in a choice of brightly alluring colours.
"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, March 1988.