Artists VOLTA NY 2008
Presented by: David Risley Gallery
1940, Dorset, United Kingdom
In conversation with Jacob Naish.
" I began the Bench Paintings in December 1989. My intention had been to make an 'hommage' to a man who had interested me since I was a young student; the
Neapolitan philosopher, Giordano Bruno. In more general terms, I wanted to make paintings about the infamy of religious history. The bench appeared in the earliest working drawings. For many reasons, it was an image immediately significant to the subject matter. I think of the bench as a powerful metaphor; for waiting, religious tyranny, trial and death. It is also historically, a place where justice and injustice is administered.
Despite the weight of subjective references in my work, I believe ultimately that a painting must move beyond it's subject. In this sense, I am primarily concerned with the mechanics of painting"
Michael Simpson
 Michael Simpson. Bench Number 67 [bruno resurrect]. Oil on Canvas. 2007 |