Alannah Hopkin | Review of New Paintings | Fenton Gallery | The Irish Examiner | 2003
Another brush with Climent
TOM CLIMENT is known for the large scale of his painting, and his new show at Fenton Gallery Cork (Wandesford Quay, February 7 to 28) runs true to form.
The largest work, Obscura, is nine feet by five, and several of the others have one side measuring six feet. I spoke to Climent shortly after the paintings had been trans-ported from his studio on Sullivan’s Quay to the gallery.
It was the first time the artist had been able to view all 10 works at the same time, as there is not enough space in his studio to look at more than one or two.
The show, which will also includes smaller works on paper in the vaults, represents two years’ work.
Once again, Climent has produced an impressive body of work, that moves his painting forward into a strange realm, hovering between figurative, landscape and abstract.
While he continues to admire the Old Masters; including Caravaggio, he is painting in a much freer way, and has moved towards a more modernist structure.
This young artist’s work has been something of a sensation ever since the huge works in his degree show at the Crawford College of Art in 1995, which sold out immediately to established collectors and public venues.
In 1996, Tom Climent received the Victor Treacy Award, and was chosen by art critic Brian Fallon to exhibit in a solo show at the Temple Bar Gallery the following year.
His 1998 solo show, Dancing Parade, inspired by the work of Degas, at the Triskel Arts Centre in Cork, was yet another sell-out.
Climent is a pleasant, modest young man, apparently quite unimpressed by his own success. He talks about painting with a passion. One work, Obscura, which moves from light to dark as the eye travels from left to right across nine feet of canvas, appears to be a kind of cityscape, or distant view of a port at night, a red sky above an half-lit area that recedes into darkness.
Of it, Climent comments: “I wanted a big sweep, and a movement from light to dark. People see a city in it, and it certainly has a landscape feel to it.
“But I like to leave it open-ended. I think it is more interesting for people to look at a painting and work it out for themselves, to stop and wonder what it’s about.”
Like many of the paintings in this show, Obscura combines areas outlined by straight edges, with looser kind of painting.
Some of the works use concrete, plaster or builder’s bonding material under oil and glazes. The unusual texture of the area of black in Obscura was achieved using house-hold paint.
“The black is eggshell, from a hardware store, which I poured on to the canvas when it was on the floor, then 1 tilted it and let it run down.
“You can see the skin it formed. The painting process is important to the final look of the work. I like to include accidents that happen while I’m painting.”
Pieta is Climent’s version of the traditional study of the figure of Christ removed from the cross, with a ghostly Christ at its centre. Venetian Concert is a bold symmetrical composition which uses the paint itself to suggest the scene.
Doorway uses straight edge again, and shows the ease with which Climent fills a big canvas.