Frame & Canvas

In William Crump’s new series of abstract paintings the artist works from the idea of breaking down nature to it’s purest form and rebuilding by means of adding, taking away and adding again until a finished piece is revealed. This approach is something of a reverse for the artist. The previously imagined narrative, in which the viewer would peer into an unknown gulf separating reality and fantasy is gone. Instead, with Frame & Canvas, Crump begins from the unknown and works his way toward the edge of the known. 

Although Crump has left behind the narrative and imagery of his previous work, he has not entirely disregarded the elements that went into his earlier conceptual paintings, drawings and collage. There is certainly a visible repetition in the paintings, such as, gesture, scraping, erasing, tearing, folding, layering, manipulation or altering of the canvas. It is here that the artists hand, much like in his previous work, is present. 

As each painting is reduced, some remain in their minimal state, whereas others are then built up again and painted heavily back on to the canvas. On close inspection, this push and pull often reveals the ghost of the stretcher, holes through the canvas, gesso ground and tearing at the edges. 

While each these canvases share a relationship to surface, color, scale, and boundaries, they remain intimate and separate of one another, choosing instead to cast off any formal sense of geometry, preciousness or irony. One defining similarity of these paintings is the ghosting of the stretcher which is consistently present through the canvas. Here the foundation is not only revealed, but embraced as an equal component to the work. This intentional revealing mirrors the artist’s belief in the continual renewal of nature of the human spirit.