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Umbra Array 1, 2023, Matthew Allen, Photo Courtesy of Fox Jensen McCrory
Photo Credit
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Crimson Stack, 2023, Photo Courtesy of Fox Jensen McCrory
Photo Credit
Umbra Array 1, 2023, Matthew Allen, Photo Courtesy of Fox Jensen McCrory
Photo Credit
Crimson Stack, 2023, Photo Courtesy of Fox Jensen McCrory
Photo Credit
Allen is a romantic, and though colour and its emotional manipulations have only recently re-entered his vocabulary, the dominant material that he works with, graphite on linen, is ripe for atmosphere, for welcome uncertainty. As a material it needs to be coaxed and finessed into life, very much by hand – and eye. For all their apparent formality Allen’s works are the product of touch and fine judgement. Matthew’s best works remind me of the way that American painter Winston Roeth describes working with colour. You must “keep the pigments moving, caressing them until they lift (off)”. Though the graphite appears, like Judd’s raw aluminium, to be implacable, under Allen’s guidance it begins to kindle, offering up traces of light and reflection.
Allen is a romantic, and though colour and its emotional manipulations have only recently re-entered his vocabulary, the dominant material that he works with, graphite on linen, is ripe for atmosphere, for welcome uncertainty. As a material it needs to be coaxed and finessed into life, very much by hand – and eye. For all their apparent formality Allen’s works are the product of touch and fine judgement. Matthew’s best works remind me of the way that American painter Winston Roeth describes working with colour. You must “keep the pigments moving, caressing them until they lift (off)”. Though the graphite appears, like Judd’s raw aluminium, to be implacable, under Allen’s guidance it begins to kindle, offering up traces of light and reflection.