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23/11/2011

Horace Panter

The Strand Gallery, London

With influences ranging from Pop Art to iconic forms of political propaganda, Horace’s ultra-modern images are a head-on collision between the codified, anti-realist language of iconography and the modern world’s jumble of religions, technologies and ideologies.
From the paint-box cool of Beijing’s high streets, its uniformed cleaners and the ubiquitous presence of military personnel to the classically-drawn robot of 1950s sci-fi, Horace’s style brings together a riot of images, times and places through which he forces the viewer to consider who and what is a valid contender for centre stage.
Whilst inspired by such artists as Peter Blake, Mark Rothko, Kenneth Noland and Wayne Thiebaud, Horace is also fascinated by traditional forms of orthodox iconography. Seeing them as ‘art with a purpose,’ he acknowledges their functionality as venerated objects while simultaneously recognising their beauty as cultural artefacts.
Appropriating the styles and influences of traditional iconography, juxtaposed with the naive painterly style of Henri Rousseau and the sculptural images of political propaganda posters, Horace subverts original meanings and contexts to create paintings laden with ambiguity and playfulness. Questioning the narrative of the icon, he aims to reproduce his own unique form of neo-iconography. He says: “You ‘write’ an icon, just like you ‘write’ graffiti, and all the rules of art are thrown out of the window (perspective, chiaroscuro, etc., just like graffiti). Hopefully, they achieve a rare reverence without being pretentious.”

The Beginning: Horace Panter at Art College
Though always intrigued and influenced by the visual arts, Horace’s formal education started with a one year course in art at Northampton College in 1971. In 1975, he graduated with a degree in Fine Art from Coventry’s Lanchester Polytechnic, now Coventry University. While confirming his skill and passion for painting, his time at Lancaster Polytechnic introduced him, in his second year, to Jerry Dammers. Together they formed what would become one of the defining bands of the decade, The Specials. Studying Fine Art in the late 70’s, Horace was immersed in art theory and conceptualism. He explored and interpreted the art of ancient civilisations, in particular the art of the Mayans. Horace’s influences though, even then, were eclectic, ranging from the minimal sculptures of Donald Judd and Robert Morris to the post-abstract-expressionist paintings of Kenneth Noland, Morris Louis and Robyn Denny.

Life in The Specials
After leaving university and pursuing his musical career as bassist in The Specials, Horace continued to look for new influences. It was while in New York with the band that he came across the work of Joseph Cornell. “I’d never heard of him, but I was in New York when his exhibition was at the MOMART. It was incredible. I bought the catalogue and have been fascinated by him ever since.”
While touring with the band, Horace became a collector of rock and roll paraphernalia. Appropriating the artist’s methods, he began to create his own boxes, giving most away to friends but leaving at least half a dozen in the attic of his first home. This was at the time a hobby, but one which speaks volumes about his true passion for the visual arts.
Touring with The Specials was a full-time job, giving him little time to create his own works of art. However his extensive travels did allow him to explore the world’s greatest museums and art galleries. Horace visited masterpieces he had previously seen only in books, from Kenneth Noland’s vast horizon paintings at La Brea County Museum, LA, to Picasso’s legendary ‘Guernica,’ set behind its bullet-proof screen in Madrid. As he and Jerry Dammers created the graphics for the 2-Tone label, Horace began painting works related to ‘The Blues.’ Drawing on the history of the African-American journey from slavery to freedom, he used signs and symbols to articulate that struggle, while, at the same time, celebrating the musical expression of the Blues. These artworks marked the beginning of Horace’s fascination with icons and talismans and they contained a theme that, no doubt, he would return to.

Return to Visual Arts
Following the demise of the original Specials in 1982 and his subsequent success in The States with Dave Wakeling’s and Ranking Roger’s follow-on band from The Beat, General Public, Horace returned to Coventry where his wife had opened a punk shop called Nerve. As part of the venture, Horace experimented with silk-screens, dying cloth, tie-dying and stencilling – skills that would once again fuel his desire to create works of art.
In the 90s, Horace continued to play music, but turned also to teaching. During his ten years as Head of Art in a Coventry school for pupils with autism, his art room became known informally as ‘the drop-in centre’ for pupils who weren’t coping in their other classes - a perfect example of art as therapy. Horace looked for forms of art accessible to his students and would often refer to Henri Rousseau’s naive paintings of animals and jungle scenes. Rousseau’s influence is most evident in Horace’s recent ‘Robot at the Beach’ series.

From his early studies of the Mayan and African-American mythologies, Horace soon began to formalise his philosophy of iconography, seeing it as ‘art with a purpose’. His engagement with iconography, however, does not take a religious form; traditional iconography only serves as a starting point for his paintings. Rather, appropriating the concepts and forms of iconography, Horace subverts them with the aim of producing a contemporary neo-iconography. The robot series reflects a youthful fascination with the 1950s futuristic fantasy genre and how that particular rendition of the robot has become iconic. He also adheres to the Pop-Art ideal of ‘elevating the mundane’ (Warhol) so his subjects include those people who are often overlooked in society: the street-sweeper, the post-card seller, or the ubiquitous soldiers and security personnel on the streets of Beijing.

It was travels in Asia, particularly in Japan, that fuelled this fascination. Coming across books about the history of robots and robotics in Japan and South Korea, from their uses as aids for the elderly to their more commercial incarnations as sex dolls (fembots), Horace began to contemplate the ethics and morals around robots. Looking back on the straight-faced glances of the religious icons, he began to further explore the ambiguity of icons: how human are they and how much are they simply a static vision? From the spectacle of punk in Japanese street fashion and the enigmatic stares of the ‘Fruit Girls’, his interest in the influence of robotics and technologies simply grew and grew, hence, in his paintings, one has to question whether the subject is human or doll.

The exhibition Robots, Saints and (Extra)Ordinary People is testament to a long-standing preoccupation with symbols, icons and figures surrounding us in daily life, and, most pertinently, what they truly stand for. All of the exhibited works will be available to purchase, both as rare originals, silk-screen and limited edition fine-art prints.

“I’m fascinated by iconography and its traditional function as a tool for reinforcing religious or political rhetoric. I’m really excited about this exhibition; the idea of seeing 60 of my pieces in one place will be as surprising for me as I hope it will be to everyone else!”

Image: Robot at the Beach #1 © Horace Panter

Opening: Thursday 24th November

The Strand Gallery
John Adam street, 32 - London
Hours: Mon-sat 11-7pm
Sun 11-6pm
Admission Free

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