Lane’s ‘messy neat’ technique typified by line and colour play
A MIXTURE of abstraction and figuration, one is attracted to the provocative painterly designs presented at this chic, classic boutique of art. The possibility for the abstract to dominate is tempered by the obvious figurative and city imagery. Yet if one sees the figuration as but the first elements – lines, colours, composition, scale and so on and so forth – then an interesting shift occurs. Beyond the obvious question: is it harmonious, one might possibly see the hint of a letter or symbol (in the various coding of the colour sequencing).
Then one emerges from this perception into the here and now. And in that sense, quite simply Georgia Lane reflects on the theme of relationships such as motherhood in the context of the complex web of apparent connections – city life.
Lane achieves a sense of dislocation between people in the city through sensitive drawing ability and an aesthetic where blocks of colour value are offset against other colour structures. A formalist analysis of this type does not eschew content, as clearly there is also narrative. Such a narrative would suggest at times a unity with others, with the city as colours sing and form is arranged with compositional harmonies – a sound and sounds – that are a structured language. It may be the visual language, which while mute may yet speak.
Some paintings such as Transit, like many of the paintings, include not simply acrylic paint, but oil paint stick, oil pastel and aluminium shavings on canvas, are evidently joyous.
There is a sense of a path that one can traverse, temple like structures loom large and a mathematical pattern and sensual delight that promises joy, peace and abundance materially and spiritually. This particular work, unlike most, does not contain figures as such, and yet one feels one is in Transit and one could enter into that space; it conjures an empathic quality (einfuhleng). It enjoins one to move, or at least to dream. Other paintings such as Contemplation are more sombre and certainly less optimistic.
Then there are her Mondrian-like webs of geometric scaffolding. In the complexity of city life is a simple sameness that results, an ant-like mentality. The grey-black lines that criss-cross are “coloured” in with primary and other colours. However, should one see beyond the “bars” (geometric scaffolding) there is actually a figure, so that abstraction and figuration co-exist. What this amounts to saying is that the paintings (reality?) are quite fabric-like and include various levels of being.
There is often a child-like, playful freshness; a more mystical intuition or even a remnant of De Kooning without the angst. There is little figuration that one could call fleshy as figures dominate conceptually and yet in themselves are dominated by the cityscape, composed as they do his/her very insides. I enjoyed the way the artist used a certain paint-wash technique in a style I think might be best exemplified by the phrase “messy neat”. Her individual technique or commonly better known as her “style” is typified by the fight/struggle/play between line and colour. The overall result of the battle is one in whose subtle and sensitive renderings one finds beauty in the rhythm between self and constructed city life. And significantly the human relationships that occur “inside” these enclosures.
This perception/conception is ratified by the ubiquitous presence of blocks of colour and geometric drawings of rectangles and squares, the presence of doors and windows. Here one enters and exits in order to find home – true beauty.
Suddenly, one interprets differently and revels in the formalist perspective and forgets psychology: The flat picture plane, the abstract pure forms become surreal and then a further level reveals – almost – a classical drawing hand or the constructivist approach of early modernism.
Johans Borman Fine Art prides itself on our South African masters as well as showcasing contemporary South African artists. The former, the permanent collection is a rare historical detour into early modernism and beyond and I felt that Georgia Lane, somehow shares a certain aesthetic that can trace its origins in the modernism of Piet Mondrian, Hans Hoffman, Cubism, Surrealism and De Kooning without the angst, as well as, in a most general sense, African roots.
At the same time, it is important to keep in mind the simple, direct and literal meaning: that the city has many faces. However, the city can give rise to qualities such as sharing, introspection, and connectivity. We know only to well that this may also not occur. My overall impression though is that the works are hopeful that the “urban frequencies” are both aesthetically pleasing and life enhancing.
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