PETER JOSEPH
b. 1929, United KingdomOver the decades, Peter Joseph (1929–2010) has dedicated himself to the search for potential in constraint. He received critical acclaim in the 1970s for his meditative two-tone paintings, which placed a rectangle within a frame of a darker hue. These early works were characterised by perfect symmetry, where every decision in colour and proportion could be seen as an evocation of time, mood or place. Although comparable to the work of Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman, Peter Joseph’s work was an anomalous strain of minimalism: his allegiance was as much to the Renaissance masters as to his contemporaries.
More recently, in the 2000s, his format has departed from its established ‘architecture’ to divide the canvas into two planes, horizontal or vertical, in which free brushstrokes, natural tones and smudges appeal to new sensations. The paintings of his latest period are reminiscent of the painter’s affinity with sky and landscape from his studio in Stroud, England. There is a freedom in the composition, the brushstroke becomes both dynamic and supple, leaving in many places unpainted areas, thus creating a new space. Peter Joseph is one of the great contemporary painters of colour, light, space and the mysterious space in between.
Courtesy Galerie Bernard Bouche
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