David Austen
David Austen paints on a uniformly small scale.
On first sight, his images may appear as merely decorative markings, but are in fact concise with meaning. The enigmatic beauty of the figures, shapes and colours are revealed as a refined process by which ideas, sensations and emotions are concentrated in a single and intense image.
On paper, Austen’s works parallel calligraphy – in the sense that his small images seem comprised of one unalterable and complete line. His pieces offer no obvious narrative and our appreciation of their feigned simplicity is based on the consummate rightness of each mark, and the impossibility of modifying or improving the image. Attenuated in form and floating against the light ground of the paper, the figures and lines communicate themselves to us with charm and assurance.
Each small piece has the emotional weight and potency of much larger work, and it is the accomplishment of Austen’s art that it does not require scale – but radiates purpose and eminence from an acute and compressed image, which is at once intimate and immediate.
David Austen was born in 1960, and studied at the Royal College of Art between 1981 and 1984. He is represented by the Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London.