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I saw the item on BBC Breakfast News and headed straight for the gallery. There were many good works but I have noted just seventeen of them and of those seven are truly outstanding. What is the worth of the Turner Prize when here, now, today, there are signs of brushwork, composition, vision and concern approaching Turner himself. You can go to Tate Britain and draw like Turner. Go to Tate Britain and engage with his brushwork. But don't go to the Turner Prize or the Tate Triennial and expect anything as raw and real and committed as this. As I worked my way around the Frost & Reed gallery I counted 36 little red stickers covering the reasonable prices. Sold. Ears ever ready I learnt that a serving soldier had dug deep in his own pocket to buy a painting of his brothers in arms from the Ghurkas in order to donate the work to the regiment. Hurrah! And twice again hurrah. How can a country of 60 million as we are in Britain take such a miserly attitude to a few thousand soldiers who have dedicated themselves to our cause wherever it may be or have been around the world. In Hong Kong, when I lived there, Britain stationed these fine soldiers there. They subsequently served in the Falklands and in Iraq. Arabella Dorman is my witness in Iraq, and I thank her. You sweated, you took the risk, you have been there and worn out the tee-shirt! She certainly has an eye, a heart and a mind so tuned
to the situation. Whatever medium she chooses she has put just
enough in the frame, not overelaborated, sometimes requiring
the viewer to work hard. But it is worth the effort. I haven't
been there, but I wish I had the opportunity. I The juxtaposition of the posthumous portraits of Sergeant Rees and Corporal Leaning were very moving. Striving for peace even through conflict is honourable. Unless you have made even a small personal sacrifice there is no room for apathy or disinterest. No-one goes out of their way to make the situation worse. Inertia, apathy and selfishness are no foundation for criticism. No-one goes to war to die, but heroes know that the risks of taking part are unimaginable. Take two weeks and walk a marathon in another man's shoes, shoes that were never expected to see the road again. Yes, get out of your comfy chair and go and see these sketches, the drawings, the watercolours, and the oil paintings. They are not photographs that happen at the click of a finger. Look harder. Feel what you see. Let down your defences. Take your iPod out of your ears, put your mobile phone in the drawer. Bin that chewing gum, stub out the fag. Stand up. Be proud. Get involved. Did you sleep well last night? Did you have a nice breakfast? Was there sand in your toothpaste? Did you stand like a statue on the escalator? Has your heart been stressed even once this week with exertion? I thought so. I climbed the escalators on the Underground all day today and civilian life has reduced you to zombies. Three free newspapers full of trivia and not one passenger stretching their mind on a tough piece of literature or scientific reading. Underpants hanging out of your jeans like surrender flags, you don't even offer your seat to others more needy. So you have gone to the exhibition now haven't you? Switch the television off. Get there. Walk, march, run! I haven't seen front line combat except the years of anti-social and outright criminality in suburbia. My father saw Suez and Sicily and somewhere way out in Asia after the defeat of Japan. Then Monte Bello. Yes, get the atlas out. Put Operation Hurricane 1952 in your search engine. Then read up on the Cuban Crisis with Kennedy and Kruschev. My grandfather saw the Bolshevik Revolution from Reval and goodness knows what in the Caribbean. My great-grandfather saw Kitchener, Arab slaving dhows, the Queen of Madagascar, and the defeat of the despotic King of Burma in the Third Burma War. And you think you have a busy lifestyle. Did you dig for victory. Where does your food come from? Where does your peace come from? Yes. Men and women like these. Stand back from the paintings, I'll call them all paintings even if some of them are drawings. Clear your mind of all the trivial distractions. Concentrate. Empathise. Is there sand in your boots? Did you have to get your family to send you better boots! What about the blisters . . . Only now are you ready to look at the works of art that Arabella Dorman has created. Of course a camera can capture images but it doesn't put them on canvas. The desert storm is blowing the paper about, the light is fading, the pencil and the charcoal are conspiring against you but there are observations to be made, things to see, ideas to fight, marks to make, accurately, proportionately, quickly. The men have disappeared, the dust has obliterated them. Brush it aside but don't brush them aside. Yes, you have to join their world on their terms and get on with it. They are keeping you safe too. And so we arrive safely at the first painting I have noted. 18 'A Safe Return', 2 Rifles, Basra Palace Excellent perspective, nice grouping and composition I haven't photographed the painting, go see for yourself. War artists don't have to deliver their work to your door! 40 'Dawn over the Shatt-al-Arab' Watercolour The back cover of the gallery catalogue shows this deceptively simple composition. It makes me want to see such a landscape for myself. The calm of dawn, the calm before the storm, the peace that is being strived for. 3 'The Queen's Royal Lancers patrolling the border', Maysaan Oil on canvas. Four vehicles heading towards oil smoke on the horizon The front cover of the catalogue shows this finely observed scene. Four vehicles kicking up the dust heading towards a distant plume of oil field smoke. It's all there; colour, composition, hardness, softness, form, function, shape, tension. It doesn't quite seem right just to say 'Enjoy'. 73 'The Faces of the Fallen'  Oil and mixed media on canvas, from newspapers and an over-painted rifleman standing This is an unusually modern mixture of content. It deserves a grander frame and a grander setting. I hope that Mr Saatchi wouldn't be upset if I suggested that a wall of one of his galleries would do this single piece justice. Then there is material within this work to scale it up. A bigger gallery, then something truly huge, the whole façade of the old County Hall buildings opposite the Houses of Parliament by the London Eye, say it that big. 39 'Early Morning Catch', Basra Palace Watercolour Another serene scene to pair up with Dawn over the Shatt-al-Arab 13 'Too many stories to tell'  Charcoal and chalk paper There are several, nay many tentative sketches but this one of Rifleman Kerr seems to capture the essence of the moment. A newspaper should print this and have it posted through every letter-box in the land. Your country needs men like you. 41 'Downtown Basra' Oil on canvas Black soldier, face pleasantly painted, figure loosely sketched, background in very broad brush Again there are too many works in a relatively compact space. This canvas alone deserves a proud space. We should meet men like these. If you recognise yourself speak up, I want to know your name and shake your hand. 9 'Challengers Crashing Out', Basra Air Station Oil on canvas Three vehicles shrouded in desert dust. Beautiful atmospheric perspective It would be hard to change one brush stroke in this painting. I am just greedy, I want to see it bigger, ever more detail though not photographic detail but rather Turneresque detail where the painted surface needs to be studied harder and longer. 21 'The Soldier', Basra Watercolour and charcoal on paper Carrying a medic's case I really liked this work though there was some unnecessary tape left on the edge of the precious hand made sheet of paper. Every ragged edge contributes to the atmosphere. It mustn't be lost in a traditional window mount. 29 'Waiting in a Warrior', Basra Palace Watercolour and charcoal on paper This could be called a companion piece to The Soldier. They should hang together and even along with Night Watch as a triptych. The paper is special, the raw technique delightful. 15 'Under a Sweltering Sky', Iranian border, Maysaan  Oil on canvas One gunner atop a vehicle in a bright sand swirl. Turneresque. The catalogue says a 'Sheltering Sky' but I feel sure that this should be a Sweltering Sky. The swirl of desert dust is exquisite. My daughter suggested that the vehicle is just too imbalanced to the left, I know what she means but I like the vacuum of the centre field and all that bright dust. It's the moment before a dust devil rises up in the air and is swept away by a descending whirlwind. 49 'An Evening Patrol', light over dust, Maysaan Watercolour on paper Similar to 15 above but smaller and in a different medium. 2 Posthumous portrait, 'Sergeant Rees' Oil on canvas Killed on operations in Iraq, 7 January 2007 This was a very moving display, two portraits separated by a desert burial scene. 70 Posthumous portrait, 'Corporal Ben Leaning' Oil on canvas Killed in action in Iraq, 12 April 2007 67 'Study for QRL' Charcoal (Basis for 3) 46 'Night Watch', Maysaan Watercolour, chalk and charcoal Trio of riflemen in foxhole, back to back, defending each other. This fine piece is well observed and presented with panache. 12 'Silent Voices' Watercolour, chalk and charcoal A bit too far for me.
Of course there was more, much more, but you must go and see for yourself. My chosen seven are like lottery numbers: 73, 13, 41, 9, 21, 29, 15 Go see those and you will feel like a millionaire, but without the guilt of greed. I suspect that by the time you get there they will all have been sold. But just do it, go, get involved. Apparently Arabella Dorman is scheduled for a trip to Afghanistan. I'm ready to carry your luggage, wash your brushes, sharpen your pencils! Go girl go, but take care. "Wonderful to see such a body of works boldly executed in a variety of media" |
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© Brian Marsh, 11 May 2009 email initiative.cafe@btinternet.com |
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