Love Gasoline

Artist Richard Wright (London, England, born 1960)

Date1993-1994

Mediuminstallation. gouache, acrylic

ClassificationsInstallations

AcquisitionThe Scottish Arts Council Bequest, 1997.

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDAG013671

Keywords

Abstract

About MeRichard Wright has just been announced as the winner of the Turner Prize 2009. One critic wrote; his "work is so beautiful that you stand transfixed in front of it." Wright works like an old master. He starts by drawing his design on paper and then pricking the cartoon with hundreds of tiny holes to transfer the image to the wall by rubbing chalk over the surface. Next, he applies size (weak glue used in the middle ages to stiffen the pages of illuminated manuscripts) and paints the final layer with tiny brushes dipped in paint.

Wright's work has a quiet, subtle quality: he produces work of incandescent, ethereal beauty. His work, too, is often ephemeral because he draws and paints abstract designs directly onto the gallery walls. When the show closes, they are painted over. This is also true of our work by him, 'Love Gasoline' which came into the collections in 1997, as part of the Scottish Arts Council Bequest. Although his work is ephemeral by coming into a public collection it can exist - as here - in image form on our database- and be recreated for special showings.