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Also known as Outsider Art,
Art Brut is a category of works produced by artists who have two strikes
against them. Having had little or no formal training, such artists
are generally ignored by the “art world”, and their pieces
are rarely displayed in world famous galleries.
Although critics routinely ignore them, the general public has a way
of sniffing out what they like, and will often pass right on by a much
flouted and touted artist’s canvas with meaningful lines and
deep expression (whatever that means), to hang on their wall some little
rough board with an appealing image produced by a garage Gaugin.
Kelly Moore is a self-taught artist whose acrylic
works are a surprising adventure. Looking over what hangs in his cyber gallery
at www.kellymoore.net/html/gallery.html,
one is struck by the simplicity and emotion expressed inside the frames.
Acrylic paints are often mixed with sand and the brush strokes have
come alive with noticeable impasto gusto. Perhaps he often surprises
himself with what he creates with colour and texture. It’s a
given anyway, isn’t it, that the painter veers from an intended
mental image and into a reality brought only when paint actually touches
the surface. Somewhere along the arm, the idea has transposed or changed
it’s mind, and metamorphosed into what it was always meant to
be. That is, until someone else looks at the finished painting and
perceives it from their own preconceptions.
Take, for example, Moore’s 8" x 10" acrylic Black,
Red, and White. At first glance, the lines hold interest because they
curve with dimension
and refuse to lay flat on the canvas. The splotches merge into definite
forms. A white figure appears in the top right corner, arms held out
against an unnamed horror. The thoughts are swirling and afraid and
picking up colour from the soul’s fears, which are represented
by a monstrous form whose gaping mouth threatens to engulf their being.
The painting touches one immediately, perhaps stirring better-forgotten memories
and emotions. In long-buried saturated corners of the
mind there lie primeval responses to the graphic imagery
of such a painting: terror, curiosity, repulsion, and betrayal,
feelings re-awakened the moment one looks at the
abstract.
Moore hasn’t commented on his painting, leaving the viewer free
to objectively interpret what his work has to say. That he has created
something distinct is certain. What one deciphers from Black, Red and
White is wholly a personal journey – into someone’s past,
another’s present, or somebody’s future?
Resume of Exhibitions
Arsagas On Crossover
February 2004
Inspired Art Fair London England Fall 2003
Hallar Art Gallery Featured Artist in the "Living Room" July 2003
Paris France USO Artist of the Month March 2003
Eklektikos Art Gallery Washington DC April 2003
University of Arkansas Anne Kittrell Gallery Summer 2002
Hot House Art Gallery Summer 2001
Website: www.kellymoore.net/html/gallery.html
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Kelly Moore with an imaginative larger work |
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