Normal;heading 1;The girl, the bull and the airfield
New paintings by Matthew Lanyon
In Greek mythology Zeus falls in love with Europa, disguises himself as a gentle snow-white bull and, while the girl is making a fuss of this new member of her father's herd, abducts her by swimming out to sea. Matthew Lanyon knows the story well: it was read to him as a child; in the mid-1950s his artist father produced a striking interpretation of the theme in which oil paint plays out a mythical drama of land, sea and sex. The twenty or so paintings in Matthew Lanyon's 'Europa' series revisit and develop this complex personal legacy. They are, he says, about 'pushing my childhood map to the edges'. Female forms become landscapes, which become animals, which become maps. Here are a lighthouse, a chapel, a navel - signified by a red dot, which may also be the rising sun or a beacon on the telecommunications mast above Camborne. Is this a horse's head or a headland? A lot of what Lanyon calls 'elision' is clearly going on.
Field of Dreams, the largest painting in this show, is very large indeed. It is not made to be looked at from one position but to walk along, to think alongside. It's like listening to a story in which familiar characters reappear in altered form. You recognise shapes and signs from other 'Europa' paintings - the red dots again, and a tilted 4 that, explains Lanyon, stands for Perranporth airfield. In fact this enormous work, like numerous others in the exhibition, is a carefully scaled up, horizontal variant of a small vertical panel painting, in which Europa's figure-of-eight breasts and the bull's horns are suddenly obvious. The breast shapes, especially, recall the conventions of Aborginal bark painting - human and animal forms are also landscapes, threaded by schematic paths that lead simultaneously through space and time. If you don't recognise the cliffs around Godrevy lighthouse or know about Perranporth airfield or the clock tower at Porthleven, you could lose your bearings. At the same time, uncertainty and elision are necessary, says Lanyon, because (and I agree), 'By not being clear, you go on looking'.
Michael Bird
August 2011
Matthew Lanyon
Field of Dreams
670.5 x 152.4 cms
Oil on canvas
Ref. 9256
Matthew Lanyon
Europa XXIV
138.8 x 30.5 cms
Oil on board
Ref. 9257
Matthew Lanyon
Europa XXIII
138.8 x 30.5 cms
Oil on board
Ref. 9258
Matthew Lanyon
Map for Dionysus
152.4 x 213.4 cms
Oil on canvas
Ref. 9259
Matthew Lanyon
Upalong
122 x 152.4 cms
Oil on canvas
Ref. 9260
Matthew Lanyon
Breaking Ground
122 x 91 cms
Oil on canvas
Ref. 9261
Matthew Lanyon
Salome
81.3 x 121.3 cms
Oil on canvas
Ref. 9262
Matthew Lanyon
Red July
81.3 x 121.3 cms
Oil on canvas
Ref. 9263
Matthew Lanyon
Europa XXII
76 x 76 cms
Oil on canvas
Ref. 9264
Matthew Lanyon
If I Had a Boat
114.3 x 109.2 cms
Oil on board
Ref. 9266
Matthew Lanyon
Cinderella and the King of Cornwall
140.3 x 124.4 cms
Oil on canvas
Ref. 9267
Matthew Lanyon
Equinox II
36.8 x 61 cms
Oil on board
Ref. 9268
Matthew Lanyon
China Clay
36.8 x 58.5 cms
Oil on board
Ref. 9269
Matthew Lanyon
Talking Horse
102.9 x 274.3 cms
Oil
Ref. 9270
Matthew Lanyon
The Lovers II
92.8 x 22.2 cms
Oil on board
Ref. 9271
Matthew Lanyon
Body Board
105.4 x 26.6 cms
Oil on board
Ref. 9272
Matthew Lanyon
Madonna VII
101.6 x 91.4 cms
Oil on board
Ref. 9273
Matthew Lanyon
Tooth
26.7 x 26.7 cms
Oil on board
Ref. 9274
Matthew Lanyon
All at Sea
29 x 29 cms
Oil on board
Ref. 9275
Matthew Lanyon
Dream House
23.5 x 23.5 cms
Oil on board
Ref. 9276
Matthew Lanyon
Round Five
25.4 x 25.4 cms
Oil on board
Ref. 9277
Matthew Lanyon
Porthleven Round II
67.3 x 72.4 cms
Oil
Ref. 9280
Matthew Lanyon
White Horse to Conder Green
64.8 x 109.2 cms
Oil on board
Ref. 9281
Matthew Lanyon
Fish Eye
15.2 x 49.5 cms
Oil on board
Ref. 9282
Matthew Lanyon
Europa XXI
15.2 x 49.5 cms
Oil on board
Ref. 9283
Matthew Lanyon
Godrevy LXXVIII
15.2 x 49.5 cms
Oil on board
Ref. 9284
Matthew Lanyon
Godrevy LXXVII
15.2 x 49.5 cms
Oil on board
Ref. 9285
Matthew Lanyon
Annunciation XIV
35.5 x 35.5 cms
Oil on board
Ref. 9286
Matthew Lanyon
Tree at the End of the Night II
34.3 x 34.3 cms
Oil on board
Ref. 9287
Matthew Lanyon
Round Four
34.3 x 34.3 cms
Oil on board
Ref. 9288
Matthew Lanyon
Jug
48.9 x 19 cms
Oil on board
Ref. 9289
Matthew Lanyon
Europa XIX
49.5 x 15.2 cms
Oil on board
Ref. 9290
Matthew Lanyon
Little Park Owl
43 x 55.2 cms
Oil on board
Ref. 9291
Matthew Lanyon
Kick Off
7 x 23.5 cms
Oil on board
Ref. 9292
Matthew Lanyon
Godrevy LXXIX
7 x 23.5 cms
Oil on board
Ref. 9293
Matthew Lanyon
Godrevy Boat II
7 x 23.5 cms
Oil on board
Ref. 9294
Matthew Lanyon
Godrevy LXXX
7 x 23.5 cms
Oil on board
Ref. 9295
Matthew Lanyon
Big Medicine
151 x 151 cms
Mixed media
Ref. 9296
Matthew Lanyon
Europa XVIII
49.5 x 15.2 cms
Oil on board
Ref. 9297
Matthew Lanyon
Europa XX
49.5 x 15.2 cms
Oil on board
Ref. 9298
Matthew Lanyon
Long Face
23.5 x 7 cms
Oil on board
Ref. 9299
Matthew Lanyon
Only Joy
32.4 x 32.4 cms
Mixed media
Ref. 9300
Matthew Lanyon
Wreck
15.2 x 49.5 cms
Oil on board
Ref. 9301