Pyracie and the secular triptych
Whilst painting the Pyracie series, I wondered if the triptych formula might be applied successfully to a non-crux execution scene. The triptych is generally, although not exclusively, associated with altarpieces. By placing each crucified figure in a separate panel the space between them can be effectively compressed, as I attempted to demonstrate in some of the 'East of Eden' paintings. If you can crucify people in a triptych, why not use the same arrangement for alternative methods of execution?
I visualised a triptych depicting three garottes on a scaffold, but in the event only two paintings materialised and these were never fully completed. Possibly they work better as separate pictures. Ultimately I compromised with a digital salvage job in Windows Paint, leaving vaguely defined spectators and background detail. The resulting diptych indicates how little spatial economy has been achieved, since the figures are so close they could have been painted in a single picture. However, the advantage of the multi-panel format is that if one picture just didn't work out, I could either make a fresh start without affecting the integrity of its neighbour, or simply focus on the successful image in isolation.
Whilst this is secularising a tradition with its roots firmly planted in Christian religious art, it is not breaking new ground. It has been done before, although I am not necessarily in good company in respect of the precedent I have in mind. In 1937 Adolf Ziegler painted a large triptych, containing four allegorical nudes symbolising Fire, Water, Earth and Air, entitled 'The Four Elements'. The figures are so closely grouped that they might as well appear on a single canvas, but I suspect Ziegler was deliberately secularising the religious tradition. He and I have both produced seated female nudes, but in very different contexts.
Working in Germany in the 1930s , Ziegler conformed to the standards of Nazi approved art, which aspired to a heroic ideal and would have condemned my pictures as degenerate in the extreme, especially the obscene pose of my dark-haired pirate! Ziegler's women represent a monumental triumph of the Aryan ideal and if they aspired to providing an altarpiece for the new secular order perhaps this was confirmed by the fact that they hung above the fireplace in Hitler's Berghof.
Despite the formality of its rather statuesque composition and the disinterested expressions with averted looks, superficially 'The Four Elements' is technically accomplished and has a certain aesthetic appeal. Only when you probe beneath the surface and discover its background implications does it become a sinister epitaph for the Third Reich.
In contrast, my pirates' eyes engage the viewer directly, even defiantly. Their nudity is not that of mythological heroines but disgraced and condemned criminals. Their tense, rigid poses result from being tied in place, the garottes ready around their throats. We are about to witness something dramatic and the atmosphere is intended to be disturbing. If art ceases to be provocative, it becomes merely decorative.
I have attempted expressions of mixed fear, anger and resentment in anticipation of the approaching executioner whose shadow falls across the planks in the left foreground. Here is the turmoil of emotion in the face of impending death. Demanding our accountability, these girls are staring at us, the executioners.
. Unfortunately you don't see very many of them