SELECTED WORKS BY William Daniels
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William Daniels
William Blake II
2006
Oil on board
33.3 x 26 cm |
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In their rustic aesthetic and exaggerated spatial rendering William Daniels’s paintings, at first glance, appear to be contemporary explorations of cubism. They are, however, immaculately drafted still-lifes. Daniels begins each piece by making immensely detailed collages: reconstructing well known art historical paintings from bits of found paper, fag packs, and household products. Using these as maquettes, he then translates each fold, frayed edge, and bevelled texture into highly realistic paintings.
Based on Thomas Phillip’s 1807 portrait, Daniel’s William Blake II is uncanny in its decrepit, post-apocalyptic semblance. Exchanging the rich warm hues of Georgian parlour painting for the ashen greys of his recycled study, Daniels revives his art historical subject as a zombie-like effigy, an homage to a hero that’s both futuristic and decayed. Through Daniel’s attenuate process of working from life models, William Blake II resounds with a heightened sense of the presence of the subject before the artist, bringing to light issues of originality, authenticity, and the malleability of documentation. |
William Daniels
The Shipwreck
2005
Oil on board
30 x 40 cm |
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William Daniels
Still Life With Flowers And Curtains
2007
Oil on board
42 x 55 cm |
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William Daniels
Still Life With Relief Chalice, Fruit And Glasses In A Stone Niche II
2007
Oil on board
54 x 41.5 cms |
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ARTIST INFORMATION
ARTICLES
William Daniels
William Daniels' small-scale canvases are derived from torn paper tableaux of famous historical paintings. Daniels' begins his painting process by first constructing models and lo-fi Marquette's from paper materials such as cereal boxes, masking tape and cigarette papers. When each model has been completed Daniels sets about the slow process of rendering in painstaking detail each of its cuts, tears and folds. The baffling complexity of Daniels' paintings often lends a solidity and permanence to the otherwise throwaway ephemeral materials use to construct each Marquette.
In past works Daniels' has exclusively chosen to reinterpret pre-twentieth century masterpieces including The Abbey in the Oak Wood by Casper David Friedrich, The Incredulity of St Thomas by Caravaggio and Raphael's The Resurrection . In recent months Daniels' has chosen to concentrate on more contemporary references and the exhibition will include four mountain studies by Cezanne, a Baselitz landscape, and a Morandi still life.
William Daniels' slow process of working from reproductions reflects how often our experiences of the world are formed from secondary material and documentary sources. Daniels' seems to deliberately play with traditions of painting and the notion of the artist present before his subject. Through his choices of subject matter Daniels' painting often appear antiquated and incongruous with the nature of modern life - as if Daniels' were nostalgic for this loss of experience. Daniels' paintings hold a further level of complexity that is derived from their appearance as faithful copies of original masterpieces.
Whilst being meticulously executed and graphically precise Daniels' painting's are in fact genuine studies derived from life. In this way history seems to provide Daniels with basic outlines, forms and compositions and still life's solidify the gaps with texture and colour.
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Source: vilmagold.com
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