Nick Devereux
Untitled (HN VI)
2009
charcoal on magazine page
43.2 x 55.6 centimeters
Unique
Nick DEVEREUX's charcoal drawings are based on an old technique, used for example by Diego VÉLASQUEZ in Las Meninas, which doesn't aim at creating a 'photo reality' but focuses on information perceived by the human eye, ie essentially volumes and light, hence offering an original answer to the conceptual question of representation. DEVEREUX applies this technique not to human beings or objects, but to small sculptures he makes from scraps of fabric and pieces of glass; non-figurative, these sculptures, when drawn with the technique described above, get animated with unsuspected life. With a strong visual impact, DEVEREUX's drawings stand on the edge between figuration and abstraction. In the 'Pollock series' (Untitled (HN I) – Untitled (HN VI)), Nick DEVEREUX uses pages of the first French edition of photographer Hans NAMUTH's famous book of pictures of Jackson POLLOCK painting in his studio. Interested in the NAMUTH's images in the way that they propagated a sense of expression more effectively than the paintings themselves, DEVEREUX draws over these original images and eliminates the original 'purpose' of the photos so that the sense of the staged performance by POLLOCK is removed and all that is left is traces of his work. Drawing from a single sculpture with a sense of gestural movement in its composition, DEVEREUX renders POLLOCK's move as an intricate, dynamic yet abstract web of lines. Between POLLOCK's action painting, NAMUTH's photographic caption of it and DEVEREUX's rendering of these images through one of his distinctive sculptures and drawing technique, appears a fascinating back and forth between movement and stillness.
