Fiona Rae
Untitled (one on brown)
1989
oil and pencil on canvas
84 x 78 inches
Fiona Rae - written by Max Presneill
March 27, 2020
It has been some years since I have really looked at the paintings of Fiona Rae. In acknowledging the influence she had in my early development as a painter and so deciding to write something about this I went back to source and brought up her website. Jumping straight to the pages of her early career I was immediately struck by just how much I had learned from her, how much has stuck and continues to be unconsciously reflected in my own painting even now. This is not only about aesthetics. We share a deep love of bold and often ‘uncouth' color and an obvious sense of organizing the picture plane. The placement of autonomous elements pervades in both of us as well as a myriad of approaches and techniques.
Beyond this though, Rae introduced a method for approaching abstraction that had previously felt ‘inauthentic’ to me in some way. Taking elements from the world and transcribing them via the materiality of the paint and an acute awareness of the relationship between recognition and from, its boundaries and limitations, as well as the understanding of how purely abstract passages and applications can both inform the derived parts as well as alter the very nature of the purpose of surface, and the potential for reading the art work. This way of thinking allowed me to find a route towards abstraction for myself, one that validated the quality of potential interpretations for myself.
The sheer exuberant application of paint, in such a variety of methods taught me the value of an extended toolbox as well as a relationship between contemporary painting and its full history through the ages - what all painters share down the passage of time. There is a subtle and complex interaction with the production of meaning and this reflection of the historical interpretations of all aspects of painting, from the ‘autonomy’ of the gesture, the ‘accident’ of the allowed drip, the indulgence of desire, and the power of color.
The way her motifs and marks hover in a unified spatial plane has been an influence on my understanding of space and directly to my curatorial decisions when placing art in exhibitions - the web of meanings impacted by placement and proximity, sight-lines and overlaps. Her sense of scale, related both to the size of the viewers body but also to an implied extension beyond the painting’s edge situate these ‘individual’ marks in a way that I continue to recognize in both my painting and my curation.
It was an exciting visit to her website, if humbling too. I was re-energized by seeing these early works but slightly miffed with myself. I had thought I had moved into a mature stage of my practice. One which acknowledged influences but beat its own path through the world, that was ‘mine’ alone somehow. It is a useful awakening to realize that some formative elements in ones life are never far from the surface, that made me who I am and helped give me the tools to still be engaged and active in this endeavor over 30 years later….