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Artworks
Bob LAW British, 1934-2004
Mister Paranoia IV 20.11.70 (No. 95), 1970
Oil on canvas
Courtesy of the Estate of Bob Law
Courtesy of the Estate of Bob Law
240 x 418 cm
'Mister Paranoia 4, 20/11/70 No. 95' (1970) is one of the monumental yet seemingly empty works that infuriated some art critics in the early 1970s. These works are so large...
'Mister Paranoia 4, 20/11/70 No. 95' (1970) is one of the monumental yet seemingly empty works that infuriated some art critics in the early 1970s. These works are so large that they often need to be removed from their stretchers in order to be installed in the gallery space, where they take up the entirety of the wall. Law constructed the stretchers himself and considered them an important part of the work, building on his early experience as a carpenter. Indeed, the gridded armature is perceptible here beneath the surface of the canvas. The canvas is bound by a rhombus drawn by hand in black oil paint, the base of which has seeped into the unprimed surface, creating a halo of oil around the line. The only other paint applied to the surface is used to inscribe the date, 20/11/70, in the lower right-hand corner. While some critics dismissed these paintings as “empty” or “meaningless,” for Law they were “brooded-over pictures,” portals onto a higher state of consciousness.
Exhibitions
Lisson Gallery, London, 1971
Bob Law Drawings, Sculpture and Paintings Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall, 11 January - 6 February 1999 & Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, 6 March - 25 April 1999 (section II cat no 1)
Literature
Bob Law: A Retrospective, Ridinghouse, 2009 p 100-01