photo journal : euan uglow at mk gallery

I think that Chloe Ashby in her Guardian review of this exhibition was so, so wrong about so many things,
unless she was only right about the fact that Euan Uglow was an ‘artist’s artist’.

I loved this exhibition. I loved that in the first room you saw works and artists that had inspired him, the evidence of how he learnt and the direction he took. I loved that paintings, that at first glance may look (and were) mathematical and calculated, are at their are core painterly and utterly considered. I loved the flesh-made-paint and the still-life-given-soul aspects to his work. The third room, of large scale paintings was utterly stunning. Calm, thoughtful, intricate paintings. Like portrait and still life versions of Diebenkorn’s Ocean Park series.

When I play the game of ‘who would I want to paint like if I could’, Uglow and Diebenkorn are at the top of my list.