Callum Innes

Tondos

Sean Kelly, New York

November 21 – December 17, 2022

Sean Kelly is pleased to announce Callum Innes’ exhibition Tondos, his eighth solo exhibition with the gallery, which introduces a remarkable new development in his oeuvre. The exhibition presents Innes’s iconic Exposed Paintings, Split Paintings and Shellac Paintings in an entirely new format. Made on plywood panels, these circular and oval paintings mark a dramatic departure from the artist’s rectangular format and invite a range of new interpretations, both psychologically and formally. The tondos, presented in the main gallery, will be accompanied by a group of new works on paper in the front gallery.

Callum Innes | Tondos | Sean Kelly, New York from Sean Kelly Gallery on Vimeo.

Callum Innes - Tondos - 展覽 - Sean Kelly Gallery

While his working methodology remains consistent—the repeated addition and removal of pigment in the Exposed Paintings and Split Paintings and the interaction of two different materials in the Shellac Paintings— these new paintings have necessitated a number of important evolutions in the way that Innes makes the work. Using a smaller, rounded brush the physicality of these paintings is completely different, allowing for more fluidity and enabling him to have more direct contact with the work.

To create his Exposed Paintings, layers of paint are laid down on the meticulously gessoed panels and ultimately covered in black. Innes then uses turpentine to remove the layers from sections of the painting, revealing the luminous color that lies underneath. This process is repeated several times, alternating between application and removal. The result reveals varied veils of color buried within the seemingly monochromatic single pigment. In the Exposed Paintings, the residue from this process is left on the surface directly below the “exposed” section, creating another layer of color altogether.

Each of the works has a beveled edge, which returns from the surface at about a forty-five-degree angle. This plane gives the illusion that the exposed portions of the paintings are larger, changing our perceptions of light and space and emphasizing their circular shape, making for a very physical, object like presence.

“I like a painting to grow and develop through time, and through time with the viewer. So, from something that pertains to be very simple, it becomes quite complex.” - Callum Innes

“As the years have progressed, with the exposed works, they’ve become more and more complex…. You build up this resonance - you build up this depth in the colour.” - Callum Innes

In particular, the oval Split Paintings emphasize the materiality of the work as the natural grain of the wood comes through on the exposed side of the painting, adding yet more layering and depth.

As is the case with all of his paintings, in these new works Innes explores the boundaries between control and chaos. He has observed, “Chance is involved, but . . . it’s organized chance, because I’m controlling it the whole way . . . the paintings are all about mark making; about human contact; about the physicality of standing in front of a painting.”

Innes’s Shellac Paintings are the most unique in the series as the panels are created horizontally. Innes pours shellac on the surface to create a thin layer, then dips a brush into oil paint and meticulously drips the color onto the surface, creating a deliberate constellation of dots across the panels.

“I continually go back to watercolour. It’s the luminosity I can get with the watercolour, or I can achieve at times with watercolour that I can’t . . . or maybe strive to get with the oil paintings.” - Callum Innes

This sensibility is also present in Innes’s works on paper, in the front gallery. Comprised of ethereal squares of complexly layered color painted with the dexterity and sensitivity for which the artist is known, the work’s visually charged edges reveal glimpses of the individual colors in their pure form, giving the viewer an understanding of how these layers of color interact to create the finished work.