If his destiny be strange, it is also sublime. You read about it\u2014how, as he grew older, the 16th-century Venetian painter Titian increasingly abandoned the mimetic precision of his earlier works in favour of a more impressionistic and visceral style. Reproductions can hint at his bravura application\u2014how, with his brush, he created clumps and ribbons of paint to catch the light; how, smearing with his fingers, he produced gradations of pigment of superb complexity. But it\u2019s quite another thing to encounter a late Titian directly. To do so is to immediately understand the artist\u2019s genius in transforming the image into a site of sensual experience. Words and illustrations are at once vindicated and rendered quite inadequate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This situation gives me pause as I attempt to make sense of the recent paintings of Denys Watkins. Over the past 15 or so years, Watkins\u2019 work has been growing in sensuousness and expressivity, informed by the expertise accumulated by the artist over his long career. More and more he\u2019s luxuriated in the diverse possibilities of paint: applying velvety blocks of pigment to smooth, clay-coated boards; pouring slippery skins of translucent colour over grainy canvases. The illustrations in this book point to the splendour of Watkins\u2019 works, but these cannot be fully appreciated unless they are seen in the real. The objects matter, or, more accurately, encountering them matters. \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n *<\/p>\n\n\n\n Full essay in Dynamo Hum: Denys Watkins: Selected Paintings 2004\u20132016<\/em><\/a> (T\u0101maki Makaurau Auckland: Rim Books and Bath Street Arts Trust, 2017), published to accompany an exhibition of the same name originally held at the Gus Fisher Gallery<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dynamo Hum<\/em><\/strong> 17 November to 15 December 2017 3 August to 16 September 2018 18 May to 25 August 2019 If his destiny be strange, it is also sublime.\u2014Jules Verne, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea You read about it\u2014how, as he grew older, the 16th-century Venetian painter Titian increasingly abandoned the mimetic precision of his earlier works in favour of a more impressionistic and visceral style. Reproductions can hint at his bravura application\u2014how, with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":897,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[96],"class_list":["post-894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-writing","tag-denys-watkins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894","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=894"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1551,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894\/revisions\/1551"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u2014Jules Verne, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Denys Watkins<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gus Fisher Gallery, University of Auckland
T\u0101maki Makaurau Auckland<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Toi Moroki Centre of Contemporary Art (CoCA)
\u014ctautahi Christchurch<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua
Whanganui<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"