Working and shifting across mediums – photography, drawing and painting – British contemporary artist Richard Caldicott’s work is inextricably linked through its minimal aesthetic and focus. His early photographs of precise arrangements of Tupperware and everyday objects placed like trophies against painted backdrops are striking compositions of chromatic color and form. The use and elevation of these usually mundane, household objects in these photographs result in an interplay between luminosity and intensity, transparency and saturation – as visible in Orange Flask, 1996 and in Untitled No. 17. As in the Tupperware composition Untitled No.179, 2000 the original objects are often abstracted from their context, to the point where any reference to their original nature is erased.
The visual elegance present in these early works is carried throughout Caldicott’s practice from the most minimalistic Tape Drawings to the vibrant complexity of his pen and ink-jet drawings on paper envelopes. Even his most sparse and minimal works have an architectural quality, playing with a highly-calculated use of space – partitioned, divided and sliced. In many ways, these works are reminiscent of musical notations or visualizations of sound.
Art critic Derek Horton writes: “Whatever the scale of Caldicottʼ s works on paper they always present an expansive space combined with elements of taut linearity. The emptier the space and the more austere the formal composition, the more exquisitely luscious and sensuous is the colour of which it is made. As in all Caldicottʼ s work there is an elegant balance of space, form and colour in which all three are completely inter-dependent.”
Over 30 of his works, many of which have never been exhibited before, are currently on view at Atlas Gallery. The exhibition celebrates Caldicott’s 30-Year career, gathering an exciting variety of works in all media, from early photographs through to his recent prints and paintings. It illustrates the sustained innovation and experimentation within his unique personal aesthetic.
Richard Caldicott
1 March – 5 May 2018
ATLAS Gallery
49 Dorset Street
London, W1U 7NF
United Kingdom
