Daniel Clarke: Long Island. Works on Paper

- Blurb -

Daniel Clarke began creating drawings in 2001 and they continue to be an integral part of his multi-faceted practice alongside the mediums of painting, printmaking and sculpture. Often large in scale, his drawings combine iconography from his life and surroundings with warm abstractions: here are self-portraits, figures and faces; tokens of the everyday, from a ladder, spade and bicycle, to a rocking horse, baseball glove and ball; terrace doors opening onto a view of luminous flora and an evident delight in Matisse. Typically made with a mixture of charcoal, watercolor and pastel, Clarke' s drawings shimmer with color; his line vibrates; fore-and backgrounds shift, sometimes interacting with an element of collage, perhaps a map or even the front page of Le Monde. Long Island is the most extensive presentation of Clarke' s works on paper to date and their first publication in book form. Fresh, direct, without apology. Difficult to not think of Beckman: the line quick and intense, the figures retain a symbolism and beauty that emerge with difficulty within a saturated atmosphere that is both poignant and full of irrational situations. A European atmosphere impregnates these new works, giving place to a new realism. - Annalisa Rimmaudo