Margaret Hunter
Lines of Continuity: Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture
4 September - 3 October 2002
LONDON Main Gallery




                    

            


For her fifth exhibition at Art First, Margaret Hunter has been working on a specific group of 'ideas' that emerged, almost in miniature, in the form of tiny gouaches, a group of small 12 x 12 inch canvases and some beautiful, free drawings.

In the larger canvases she has developed her themes further, sometimes introducing a new colourful palette, in which the sensuality of the brushstroke has replaced the usual graphic scratching and deeply incised marks of the work on board. There is a warm feeling of companionship and dialogue in the recent paintings. In Conversation Piece a male and female figure sit comfortably together in an intimate space, their knees up, their toes tangling with tendril plants, while Some One depicts two friends chatting back to back in a vibrant landscape setting. There are more plant forms too; in a strong small canvas Little Apples Growing Again the tall standing companions bend down, intrigued by a flourishing plant that has sprouted up between them.

Hunter's abiding language of gesture and body language imbues her art with an atmosphere of 'luxe, calme et volupte' but departs so clearly from any classical repertoire of figurative arrangement that we are never allowed to forget her passionate engagement with African tribal art and her general love of primitive sculptural form. Hunter's expressionism and her academic training provide her with an invaluable counterpoint that never fails to enliven her composition, charging it with intensity while pulling it through a filter of refinement and sophisticated meaning.

New sculptures, new colour, new variety of scale, make this an exhibition not to be missed.

An illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition.