Cristea Roberts Gallery | Paul Winstanley; Large Window 1-3 | Online | May 13 – June 12
May 13 – June 12, 2022
Paul Winstanley; Large Window 1-3
Cristea Roberts Gallery
Online Viewing Room:
https://cristearoberts.com/viewing-room/58-paul-winstanley-large-window-1-3-online-viewing-room/
Print Launch: 6 – 8pm, Friday 13 May 2022
We are delighted to present a series of three new prints by Paul Winstanley Large Window 1-3 2022.
Paul Winstanley’s latest body of work takes as its subject a modernist stained-glass window inside St. Nicholas’ Church in Hamburg. Once the tallest building in the world, the Lutheran church was almost completely destroyed during the Second World War and rebuilt in a style that has become a symbol of renewal and renovation.
Mid-century architectural interiors have been a source of inspiration throughout Winstanley’s career, providing a conduit through which to explore the constructs of British Modernism and the ideas of rebirth and post-war renaissance. Characterised by their highly detailed and formalised compositions, Winstanley’s paintings and prints of semi-public spaces teeter on abstraction as they transform the banal into the sublime. Winstanley comments, “There’s something very international about that period of Modernism. Modernism has been one of the subjects of my work forever, in a slightly tangential way, it’s underpinned lots of things I’ve done, from lobbies to the veil paintings. So when I walked into the church, I was just sightseeing really, and saw the window, I thought ‘wow!’”.
Referring to his photographs for the basic structure, Winstanley re-imagined the window back in his studio in London to create a series of prints each with their own unique composition and viewpoint which he meticulously hand drew before applying the colour digitally.
Windows have been a subject of Winstanley’s oeuvre since the 1990s. Formally abstract, they provide a structure from which to explore the interplay between light and shadow, interior and exterior spaces. With his considered yet dramatic use of light, further enhanced by the translucent paper on which the works are printed, Winstanley’s ‘Large Windows’ are as mysterious as they are compelling; perhaps one could even go so far as to say utopian, as we reflect on a post-war modernism in the context of the here and now.
Prints from Large Window 1-3 are available to purchase individually or as a set. Please view the works below and contact [email protected] if you require any further information or would like to book an appointment to view the prints at the gallery.
