Antony Donaldson: French Paintings

Just over a centenary after Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres painted his Bain Turc (1863, Louvre), in 1973, in the middle of a series of Beach Paintings Antony Donaldson was working on, the artist painted a circular version of the Bain Turc he titled Tahiti Plage. After a period focused on sculpture, the artist went back to this theme in 2006 and started exploring the series, which Marco Livingtstone coined as “Cool Paintings of a Hot subject". Using his famous technique of laser cut out board on panel, the artist explored the complexity and depth of this intimate scene with a number of poses from the models, highly stylised bodies transposed and almost floating within an abstract geometrical background.

 

From the 20 paintings that were created in 2006, only a few remain available presented here; three works on panel, one on canvas and three works on paper, preparatory drawings for the series.

During the lockdown, in Summer 2020, Antony Donaldson returned to sculpture again, falling in love with some Sycamore from the local sawmill which he laminated. Working patiently through months of carving and polishing, the artist transformed the majestic wood into a female body, elegant, anonymous and powerful in her nudity, a Greek caryatid bust with black feet. During this strange period, Donaldson created from the nature around him a symbol of eternity, strength and universality that stands today amongst his career of many achievements.