Alan Percy Walker: A Detailed Look

7 December - 12 February 2010

Of all the Arts, Music is often said to be the most abstract. Poetry, with its musical connections, might come a close second, and be awarded the silver medal. The bronze might go to Literature, however, if a piece of writing is ever thought devoid of abstraction it is squarely condemned; expelled as being ‘Not Literature’.

The world of Visual Arts is no less cluttered with such prejudice, but fortunately it usually has opposing dogmas – often held quite strongly – on Installation Art for example, and any category of artistic endeavour which slides easily into the portmanteau of Modern Art. The quest by some artists for celebrity through originality alone is said by many a prerequisite for the title ‘Art’, but for those who “Know what they like”, it should not come as a surprise to hear that Representational Art, despite its continuing popularity, is unlikely to be allowed over the threshold of most subsidized galleries of contemporary work, whose arbiters might be heard to posture – “…but is it really Art?”

Impressionism having developed out of the traditional forms and content of earlier painting, was admired especially for its appeal to one’s feelings, to the abstract; it was a new visceral form of painting, in which details of a subject were disregarded in preference for an unfocused atmosphere of haziness, or of blobs of pure colour to suggest mood. This necessarily expunged all detail in favour of the dominating overview – yet observation of detail is widely thought to enrich Art, especially literature; but in painting the element has been largely unemployed for a century or more.

This exhibition is a selection mainly of topographical work, predominantly of Wales. Like reportage it is an account of what was observed at the time and the importance of the two matters, Detail & Impression, are reversed; detail is clearly the dominant element. Sometimes the artist plays games with the imagination and with perspective, but detail is what unites the work.

The artist says, “In Art, as in Life, acknowledgement of mere detail is often considered demeaning and enlarged egos are therefore inclined to dismiss it for fear of giving a ‘wrong’ impression. I have tried to produce a diligent account of the small things for, as in literature, it can set the mind and senses active on what is still important but often overlooked.

Detail is worthy – it may even have its own god, as suggested by Arundhati Roy.”