KURT JACKSON
A new book about the British landscape painter Kurt Jackson (b. 1961).
This new hardback edition includes many new illustrations. including
photographs taken for this new edition. The text has been completely
updated.
EXTRACT FROM CHAPTER 4:
One of Kurt Jackson's appealing concepts is that the ocean is one of the
last true wildernesses left on the planet. It's an idea that I found
very interesting when he explained it to me when we first met in St
Just. I took it that he meant a spiritual as well as an ecological or
natural wilderness. Jackson's art can thus be seen as an art that is the
border region between humanity and nature, between culture and nature,
as well as literally tackling that area - the coast - which is neither
land nor sea.
Note that Kurt Jackson is always facing outwards from the land, and
looking towards the ocean, not painting with his back to the sea, and
looking towards the land (and notice that the many boats and ships and
helicopters and such in this area are left out of the paintings, too).
So Jackson's Porth series, about Priest Cove, and all of his sea
paintings, are very important in his art in articulating this idea of
the ocean as the last wilderness. 'Have you ever wondered what's out
there?' is a question that Kurt Jackson asks (it's the title of one of
his major paintings, too - the centrepiece of the Porth series).
Jackson has repeated the question over a number of related works: the
title of two 2004 pieces is The Last Wilderness In Western Europe? This
was painted on Jura (in Scotland), and both pictures are consciously
emptied of human marks - just empty moorland and a delicate blue sky. An
earlier picture, part of the Cape series, was entitled Do You Ever
Wonder What's Out There? (1999) - an unusual composition in the Jackson
oeuvre which puts the horizon very high, and focusses on the dark blue
ocean flecked with white spray.
Kurt Jackson isn't that interested in many of the connotations of the
ocean - the moon, time, goddesses, rebirth (though moons do appear in
his art from time to time). He's not really interested in religious or
pagan or magical symbols in that way. And he's not that interested in
shipping, fishing, and all things maritime, like J.M.W. Turner was.
But when Jackson asks a question like 'have you ever wondered what's out
there?', and considers the sea as one of the last wildernesses, that
alters the interpretation of his sea paintings. It doesn't apply to all
of them, though: in plenty of paintings (and not only the smaller or
more modest ones), Jackson is not thinking in terms of big themes.
Fully illustrated, with a revised text. Bibliography and notes. ISBN
9781861714480. Also available in hardback. www.crmoon.com REVIEWS ON
AMAZON: A well- written and thoughtful book. * So useful to gain such
insight into an artist's life and inspirations.
