David Moore
Artist Statement
An Introduction by Richard Dyer
That so much of the surface of David Moore's paintings depicts fabric in all its delicious and luminous crumples and convolutions gives a clue to their deeper meaning. The shimmering draperies hang like a veil, as if concealing some mystery, a revelation which lies just out of reach. Usually there is the central subject of a suspended fruit, a pomegranate, or a single, perfect Arum Lily, hovering in the still, dark centre of a fold, a contemplative cipher for a greater order beyond.
The mysticism of these still lives is undeniable- and where we find mysticism eroticism is never far behiind. The single split fruit or open flower is often enclosed within the folds of a labial labyrinth, the whole painting a subtle vulvic echo. But there is no blatent symbolism here, or crude double entendre. Just as the pomegranate does not stand for fertility or mortality as per the usual definition, so the folds of the cloth do not represent the physiology of the female sex. Instead, the dark central hollow serves to emphasise the luminosity of the central subject and reinforces its meditative quality.
The sensuality lies not so much in the content of these deceptively sparse paintings, but rather in the actual substance and articulation of the paint itself. Technique is all important, the paintings being worked in a complex monochrome and then richly glazed in layer upon layer of translucent, liquid colour. When light penetrates these glazes and is reflected back to the eye we are treated to the iridescence of stained-glass windows, the scintillating chromatic fractals of Art Nouveau glass-ware.
What is finally so arresting about David Moore's jewel-like paintings is that he is exploiting the intrinsic qualities of his medium, the transparent luminosity of oil paint rather than the usual pasty offerings of clotted, opaque pigment.
Zurbaran, Van Eyck and Carravagio may immediately come to mind as precedents, but make no mistake, these are thoroughly contemporary paintings, with as much similarity to work of the minimalist tradition of Rothko and Tapies as the paintings of the Renaissance.
(1996, after an exhibition of paintings 'The Still Centre')