Wayne Summers

"Cleromancy I" . Ink On 19th Century Paper

2019

Ink on 19th Century Paper If painting, like any other language, can be considered an abstract system of signs, there must be a pictorial vocabulary and syntactical rules which commu...

Ink on 19th Century Paper If painting, like any other language, can be considered an abstract system of signs, there must be a pictorial vocabulary and syntactical rules which commu...

Ink on 19th Century Paper If painting, like any other language, can be considered an abstract system of signs, there must be a pictorial vocabulary and syntactical rules which commu...

Ink on 19th Century Paper If painting, like any other language, can be considered an abstract system of signs, there must be a pictorial vocabulary and syntactical rules which commu...

Brushed ink in grey and black leads the eye up the picture plane in this 55-inch tall painting on paper. The intense movement suggestive of rearing horses in this painterly work is in keeping with Lui's theme of pilgrimage in which he explores the idea of "self-inflicted happiness" as a deliberate response to the melancholy and complexity of life. This painting is floated and framed. Framed Size: 60 × 35 inches Born in Guangzhou, China, Lui participated in the Chinese Cultural Revolution as a member of the Red Guard 1968-70 and then escaped to Hong Kong by swimming. Making his way to Toronto he studied at the Ontario College of Art and became a citizen in the late 1970s. He continued studies in the UK, and Italy where he was drawn to the dynamic Uccello's Battle of San Romano...

Ink on paper, Acrylic and / or watercolor, signed in the front, framed in a aluminum silver frame, glass. Philip Wittmann work is based on signs. Sign...

Ink on paper, Acrylic and / or watercolor, signed in the front, framed in a aluminum silver frame, glass. Philip Wittmann work is based on signs. Sign...

The art of Philip Wittmann is founded on signals. For him, signs serve as a bridge between abstraction, reality and writing, too. When he was 26 years old, he began painting as a hobbyist using 'pure' abstraction. However, he believed his work lacked a solid foundation upon which to grow. ​He discovered a book on the origins of the Chinese alphabet, which origins are essentially signs, in 2008 while taking a calligraphy class. The 26 letters of our Latin alphabet are less pictorial than the Chinese characters as we know them now. He discovered that pictorial representation is more prevalent when examining the origins of alphabets—all alphabets, in fact—because there is frequently a similarity between the sign's true meaning and what it is meant to represent. For instance, the symbol for a turtle in the original Chinese script resembles a turtle. Wittmann loves signs as they leave room for interpretation. For instance, if one writes “the sky is blue”, one will make for themself a mental representation of a blue sky, even if each one-off us will probably have some nuance in our own mental representation of that blue sky. On the other hand, a sign can...