{"id":1224,"date":"2020-10-30T09:00:56","date_gmt":"2020-10-30T09:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/?p=1224"},"modified":"2021-08-28T04:16:41","modified_gmt":"2021-08-28T04:16:41","slug":"no-end-in-sight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/?p=1224","title":{"rendered":"No end in sight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

To look at Bushmiller as an architect is entirely appropriate, for Nancy is, in a sense, a blue-print for a comic strip. Walls, floors, rocks, trees, ice-cream cones, motion lines, midgets and principals are carefully positioned with no need for further embellishment. And they are laid out with one purpose in mind\u2014to get the gag across. Minimalist? Formalist? Structuralist? Cartoonist![1]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014Mark Newgarden and Paul Karasik<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nancy\u2019s Big Day Out<\/em> develops out of two sorts of image of longstanding interest to Denys Watkins: the cartoon and the formal abstract. The influence of the former can be found in some of his earliest works. Studying in London in the 1960s, Watkins tended away from the cool formalism associated with Clement Greenberg and mid-century New York and towards a zanier kind of work, in sympathy with that of William T. Wiley, Patrick Caulfield, and members of Chicago\u2019s Hairy Who group, such as Jim Nutt. He favoured cartoon-friendly techniques, specifically printmaking and watercolour (these were appealing for their \u2018democratic\u2019 affordability, as well as for the visual effects that they permitted). He collided the everyday and the fabulous, incorporating strange constructions or contraptions. He used comic-style black outlines and panels, giving the sense of a narrative, even when no particular narrative was discoverable. At the same time, he maintained an enthusiasm for rigorous design. All was precise and careful, nothing slapdash or haphazard. His works of the \u201960s and \u201970s are as tightly controlled as contemporaneous abstracts by the likes of Gordon Walters, though they are noticeably more down to earth (koru-like forms in Watkins\u2019 Two Screws<\/em> of 1975\u201376 grow hair).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Denys Watkins, Two Screws<\/em>, 1975\u201376. Image courtesy of the artist and Webb\u2019s, T\u0101maki Makaurau Auckland.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Denys Watkins, Yellow Dog<\/em>, 2010. Image courtesy of the artist.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Cartooning and structure continue to mark recent works by Watkins. Some play up the comic book dimension, as is the case with Yellow Dog<\/em>, a 2010 painting that centres on a plaintive Pluto. Others\u2014like Meat Science<\/em> of 2012, which features a rabbit holding a Wile E. Coyote-esque \u2018help\u2019 placard\u2014subordinate it to a larger and largely abstract whole. Indeed, Watkins has for some years now emphasised abstraction. He populates his pictures with forms that slip between the geometric and the organic, resonating particularly strongly with works by artists of the early 20th century, such as Joan Mir\u00f3 and Sophie Taeuber-Arp. His use of composition, colour, and paint texture is uncommonly adventurous, while remaining taut, controlled. He has no typical or preferred solution to the problem of making an image that works. There are, however, recurrent motifs, which set up pictorial through-lines or rhythms. This is certainly true of the pieces in Nancy\u2019s Big Day Out<\/em>. On the surface of things, they are diverse in density, palette, and temperament. Yet there is a subtly consistent feature: a form (or series thereof) that nods towards the well-known comic strip character Nancy, created by Ernie Bushmiller in the early 1930s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
A Nancy<\/em> cartoon.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Denys Watkins, Bessie<\/em>, 2020. Image courtesy of the artist and Weasel Gallery, Kirikiriroa Hamilton.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Denys Watkins, HEATWAVE<\/em>, 2020. Image courtesy of the artist and Weasel Gallery, Kirikiriroa Hamilton.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Watkins is attracted to Nancy in part as a consequence of her personality; she is strong-willed, typically outsmarting her male offsider, Sluggo. He also finds the design of the character compelling, being especially drawn to the form of her hair. She sports a dark bob that is bordered by nodules, the precise nature of which is unclear (are they meant to represent flyaways, perhaps, or curls?). Watkins has further abstracted the hairstyle and deployed it with great variety in the works in Nancy\u2019s Big Day Out<\/em>. It is sometimes outlined, sometimes solid, sometimes noduled, sometimes smooth, sometimes seen from the side, sometimes front on. It surfaces amid bacterial blobs, complex constructions, and fabric-like patterns. More often than not, it is quite unrecognisable, or rather it would be if one didn\u2019t have Nancy as a reference point, didn\u2019t know what to look for. As is frequently the case with Watkins\u2019 pictures, there is a sense that he is playing with two interrelated impulses in those of us who see the works: our will to find balance and order, and our will to uncover a story. Where Bushmiller trades in explicit narratives, however, Watkins prefers ambiguity. The punchline is withheld. The gag never ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Text commissioned by Weasel Gallery<\/a> to accompany the exhibition Nancy\u2019s Big Day Out<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Nancy\u2019s Big Day Out<\/em><\/strong>
Denys Watkins<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

28 October to 21 November 2020
Weasel Gallery
Kirikiriroa Hamilton<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/a> Mark Newgarden and Paul Karasik, \u2018How to Read Nancy\u2019, in The Best of Ernie Bushmiller\u2019s Nancy, ed. Brian Walker (Wilton, CN: 1988), 98. The essay is also available online<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To look at Bushmiller as an architect is entirely appropriate, for Nancy is, in a sense, a blue-print for a comic strip. Walls, floors, rocks, trees, ice-cream cones, motion lines, midgets and principals are carefully positioned with no need for further embellishment. And they are laid out with one purpose in mind\u2014to get the gag […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1236,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[96,212],"class_list":["post-1224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-writing","tag-denys-watkins","tag-weasel-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1224"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1453,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1224\/revisions\/1453"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}