Stanley Donwood: Modern Landscapes
21st October – 21st November 2022
Saatchi Gallery
Duke of York’s HQ
King’s Rd
London
SW3 4RY
A solo exhibition by long time Radiohead collaborator Stanley Donwood of never-before-seen drawings and iconic Sacred Landscape paintings made for Glastonbury Festival. These colourful Sacred Landscapes are based on hybrid cartographical and topological forms exploring the ancient landscapes that surround mysterious sites such as Stonehenge, Wayland’s Smithy and the Cerne Abbas Giant amongst many others. These are not mystical, New Age depictions as such but rather brash, bold colour field interpretations showing centuries-old field boundaries, trackways and paths.
In these works the English countryside has been scooped up and dropped into California and drenched in psychedelic drugs and the bright pigments that are derived from petrochemicals. By contrast the Modernland drawings are monochromatic, quieter, more reflective, and present a perfect yet sombre counterpoint to the Sacred Landscapes showing the ancient transformed by the modern.
The Modernland drawings are the aftermath. These large drawings have been scrawled, torn and sometimes scratched into heavyweight paper with soot, charcoal, graphite and chalk to create a brutal contrast.
Whilst the Sacred Landscapes turn the ancient, mysterious landscapes of England into a loud, raucous celebration, the soot and charcoal melancholy of Modernland is what remains… The morning after, when late-period capitalism has had its fun… and there’s only the reckoning ahead.
Modern Landscapes will run between 21st October – 21st November 2022 at Saatchi Gallery, Duke of York’s HQ, King’s Rd, London SW3 4RY.
©2022 Stanley Donwood, Saatchi Gallery, JEALOUS GALLERY
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