Page 8 - Art First: Joni Brenner: At the Still Point

Pre- 2011 Emergent 2011 Setting out 2015

British artist Celia Paul, in her catalogue for her show Stillness again was gratitude, a thankfulness that frequently was without
(2004:14) observes words.
It has been noticeable that over the years, as Brenner and I un-
I think that stillness in a picture can only happen if it takes a long dertake the ritual of the naming of the works for the next exhibition,
time (and probably many scraped-off layers and changes). It’s like we make recourse to poetry to help put into words the very nub of
a newly-painted room still jangles with the presence of the dec- the feeling that has been captured in the paintings. Shakespeare,
orators, whereas an old room has acquired its stillness, however Manley Hopkins, Yeats, Eliot – so often the portraits evoke a well-
turbulent the lives of its tenants. loved phrase from one poem or another. The two art forms truly
are objective correlatives for one another – and it so makes me
The stillness of this cycle of portraits comes, one feels, from hav- wonder that Leonardo had to make a case for their equivalence in
ing taken a long time – and many scraped-off layers and chang- the Renaissance. In the 21st century, it is almost as if one needs to
es, as Paul says: the looking, the adaptations and accommoda- make a case for the words, not so much for the image itself – ‘one
tions needed to know a sitter well enough to represent him well picture is worth a thousand words’.
enough, the silent intimacy of attention, getting to understand the This group of portraits of Scott Hazelhurst represents an ongoing
mark-making needed to render some vital aspect of the man in exploration – ‘ceaseless exploration’ Eliot would call it – which has
the present, the appreciation of the gift of a busy man’s time as one end, and that is to know the deep structures of the face and
willing sitter. These portraits make me see feelingly why Da Vinci body and the lineaments of flesh until they are as though one’s
argued that ‘painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt.’ But own. Some of the names of the paintings, Pre-, Emergent, Setting
seeing is surely simply another modality for feeling? Seeing the out, make reference to that exploration, to the finding of the co-
poetry does not exclude the possibility of intense feeling – and ordinates and of being able to set them out. A look at the dates of
in the discussion with Brenner as we went through the ceremony the works helps the viewer to see this process of coming to know.
of naming these works, the emotion I saw well up time and time The recognition comes – this ís the place, the face sought through

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