Filling the Void

Kate Bryan

At the very heart of the paintings by the Australian artist, Paul Davies, is a fascination, with modernist architecture and its form and history. Davies’ work encourages us to take a moment to cast our minds back to the first few decades of the twentieth century and try to imagine what a thunderbolt modernist architecture and design must have been in Europe and the U.S. In an economically challenging and socially tumultuous time, modernism was born and to many it symbolized a bright, bold future. Out of the ashes of the wars rose clean, technically advanced structures that represented achievements not just in industry and technology, but in the unification of form with function.

Architecture and design no longer needed to pander to decoration and unnecessary ornamentation. The lavish approaches of generations past suddenly seemed old fashioned and alien in the new political and cultural climate. In Europe Le Corbusier masterminded entire cities based on a reduced aesthetic, placing the emphasis on industrially produced materials and simplified form. In the U.S. no name embodies modernist architecture more succinctly than Frank Lloyd Wright, who stressed that the materials and function of a building should dictate its appearance and started a long lasting love affair with fluid lines and organically inspired form.

These architects belong to a long list of names, and indeed, even organised schools of thought, which are understood in general terms as modernist. Nearly a century later modernist architecture very much remains part of our lexicon; in fact it is still widely practiced, admired and developed. This is surely testament to the demonstrably sharp break it made with the past and to the simple beauty of its core philosophy.

We might just be able to grasp how extraordinary the advent of this new style was in Europe and the U.S, but comprehending what a dramatic force it must have been outside of frenetic global cities like London, Paris and New York is perhaps harder. In his enigmatic paintings Paul Davies considers the impact modernist architecture had, and continues to have, on his remote homeland and how the style that was dominating the rest of the western world found its place in the cities and towns of Australia.

Since (year) Davies has drawn upon the rich subject, populating his otherwise unoccupied landscapes with sharply rendered modernist buildings and structures. These are his protagonists, purposefully left devoid of human traces to underscore their gargantuan physical properties and original form. In the course of making various research trips in Europe and the U.S, Davies assembled a host of extraordinary architectural emblems for his paintings. However, one that has inspired the artist most consistently is found in Wahroonga, in Davies’ hometown of Sydney. Built by Harry Seidler, The Rose Seidler House dates from 1950 and is heavily influenced by international design. Davies has lovingly taken the building as his muse, showing it in a myriad of compositional forms and settings, each one at once complimentary and contrasting to the architectural forms (see plates 4, 8, 9,10,11 and 13). The Rose Seidler House is not just an icon in Davies’ works; it remains one of the most significant modernist buildings in the country. Seidler’s work must have seemed positively futuristic to its contemporaries and purposefully so. The architect was attempting to bridge Australia’s distance from the cultural meccas in the U.S and Europe. This bold and stark building proposed a new way of life for its inhabitants and neighbours. We can draw parallels with major architectural developments in Sydney in the twentieth century that shared the same agenda. We need only think of the Sydney Harbour Bridge with its superfluous sandstone towers at each end that pay homage to London’s Tower Bridge. And of course the enduring symbol of the city, the Sydney Opera House.

Though Davies’ paintings present beautifully rendered and sometimes recognizable modernist buildings, these sophisticated works are a far cry from student-style homage to great architectural masters and their iconic works. Davies cultivates a distinct atmospheric quality in his work, combining the power of manmade buildings with the potency of the natural world. There is no backdrop in his work, no ‘setting’ created simply to show off the building. Each is a carefully and uniquely rendered scene, scenes that have become increasingly complex in more recent works. It is in his insistence on a beautifully composed, geographically distinct location that adds such weight to his work. In this sensitive juxtaposition of building and landscape, Davies draws us in to a long-standing dialogue about the relationship between built and natural environments, drawing attention to its innate conflicts and challenges.

The clean, modernist lines of the buildings allow for large windows and easy transition between indoor and outdoor areas. These unfussy and self assured structures rendered with geometric certainty sit amidst painterly and even abstract passages which present various surrounding natural environments, including pool scenes, palm trees, night skies, lakes and even aspen wintry forests. There is a sharp interplay between the sleek manmade architectural line and the encroaching areas of loosely painted natural motifs. The increasingly abstract nature of these landscapes lend Davies work great depth and are testament to the artist slowly charting a course in new directions.

VOID is the second solo exhibition in Hong Kong for Davies and includes fifteen new paintings as well as works on paper and stencil pieces. The exhibition title has multifaceted meanings. At once it signals to the empty swimming pools and seemingly uninhabited homes. The empty pool has always been a disquieting motif in Davies’ work, acting as a metaphor for the notion of time passing, neglect and ultimately nostalgia. The fact that the homes are devoid of human figures is perhaps an even stronger image, these are homes intended for human dwelling and activity, and here they are ineffectual for the purpose they were created. However, more than referencing emptiness, the unpopulated buildings underscore the striking quality of the architecture and monumentalise it by removing its domestic connotations.

Void also refers to the space that Davies creates for interpretation; he conjures deeply atmospheric compositions which allow room for the viewer’s own reading of the scene. There is no single narrative, no one perspective or meaning, an approach that engenders a multitude of responses. Lastly, the title is a nod toward the debate about the architectural validity of modernism, in that its critics have sometimes labeled it an elitist, universal approach that lacks feeling. It also infers the opposite end of the argument, leveling an accusation against the scores of modern homes that are built without concern for aesthetic prowess and are thus stylistically void.

In this latest exhibition Davies exhibits new departures in his work, both stylistically and conceptually. In earlier works there was an obvious connection to Pop Artists such as Hockney who composed effortlessly languid pool scenes showing LA homes, complete with palm trees, in all their glory. The palm trees in Davies work played homage not just the LA scene but to the mid-century artists that awarded it iconic status in their art. In his latest works Davies has supplanted the palm trees for Australian bush trees and deciduous trees. The shift is subtle but significant. The non-deciduous palm tree is more an emblem of vacation, relaxation and even glamour than the natural world. The Australian counterpart, on the other hand, is seasonal and speaks of the bush and homeland. It conjures notions of nostalgia, national identity and history.

There is also a distinct change in the manner in which Davies handles the sky in his newer paintings. Originally the artist employed a graphic approach, using brightly coloured stripes to evoke sunshine or bold night-lights. In VOID the artist has replaced these stripes with dots, stars and drips (see plate 9 for instance). By doing so Davies is able to explore the possibilities of combining a two dimensional canvas with a three dimensional perspective, cultivated by using a figurative approach. Rather than graphic and strong, his skies are now painterly and textural, further enhancing the sleek lines of the architectural protagonists.

This approach also allows for the employment of a greater artistic license with colour, Davies skies are populated with a myriad of colours that are bounced around the entire composition, lending them a vibrancy and greater sense of energy. It is perhaps in his treatment of the natural settings where the most development has occurred. Previously many were elegant, abstract colour washes or even bold fields of flat contrasting colours that gives the work a graphic, retro appeal (as displayed in plate 8). In many of the paintings in VOID Davies introduces backgrounds of loosely applied stencils, which are visible in glimpses through exposed areas, thus creating a distinct sense of layering in the work. By revealing and then concealing these background stencils Davies reveals the process of how the composition was conceived, with ideas built over each other, signaling to the creative journey that all the works share.

In exploring where the painting began and where it has gone since, we might be tempted to see the layered backgrounds as a metaphor for the original flourishing state of natural world before it met with manmade construction. In rare works such as This Must Be The Place (plate 12) or Jervis Bay Dune Trees (plate 3) Davies presents solely the natural world, devoid of architectural structures and by doing so allows the Australian bushland to take centre stage, again emphasising the importance of the natural world in his work.

There is also symbolism and metaphorical allusion to be found in VOID in Davies’ use of reflections. Some of the works feature swimming pools that act as a vehicle for mirroring the buildings. By reflecting the modernist homes and their settings the artist employs an age-old tactic of drawing attention to them and what they stand for. Reflections and mirrors in art have long stood for notions of prudence, vanity, lust and truth. In this instance prudence might refer to best practice and industry conduct when building in areas of natural beauty. Vanity is obviously at work in the bold lines and strength of the modernist architectural forms. These are not homes that go unnoticed or are easily forgotten. There is also a sense of desire and lustfulness; for several generations the modernist home complete with swimming pool has stood as an emblem for the height of affluence and success.

Finally, truth; we know that mirrors can play tricks but they are also presented in mythological tales as the origins of what is true and valid. In this case, what are these images really saying, how should we understand these scenes which seem at once so inviting but also so self contained? And of course, the brilliance of Davies’ work is the inclusion of the viewer in this way, he immediately gets our attention with his beautifully rendered and vivid compositions, but ultimately leaves the rest up to us.

CLICK TO CLOSE