KCR XMAS WINTER FINAL print adjusted Dec 28. lower res - Flipbook - Page 13
Tony Bevan
Epistrophies and Heads
23 November 2023 3 13 January 2024
Ben Brown Fine Arts
12 Brook9s Mews, London W1K 4DG
Epistrophies and Heads showcases Bevan9s latest series, Epistrophies, in which the British artist explores the rhythmic, abstract, in昀nite possibilities inspired by a singular motif, a tree, which he encountered near his home over many winters. These works will be presented alongside Bevan9s
Heads paintings, with which he has taken on a looser, more abstract approach as this series progresses. Exhibited together, the repetitive forms and
complex structures of these works o昀er a meditation and myriad associations to the viewer, suggestive of the human form and its intricate internal,
external and psychological systems.
Over the last 昀fty years, Bevan has emerged as one of Britain9s foremost 昀gurative painters. Bevan9s work has explored a cohesive yet dynamic evolution of thematic investigations. His works often feature trees, landscapes, architectural constructions and heads. The Epistrophies series focuses
on the profoundly rhythmic, anthropomorphic, and expressive characteristics of a lea昀ess tree that Bevan closely studied near his home throughout
several seasons. Returning to his studio to work from memory, he would transmute the emotions and impressions exuded by the tree into endless
iterations. Adopting a term commonly associated with poetry, rhetoric and rhythm, each Epistrophe 3 or each version of the tree 3 becomes a lyrical
sequence, in which forms are constantly growing, reforming, repeating and returning to their origins. In Epistrophy Red White (PC2218), 2022,
twisting curvatures of densely painted branches fan out like neural pathways as the tree hovers over a background of powdery, di昀used pigment.
Epistrophy Grey White (PC2213), 2022, is an ethereal depiction of the tree in soft grisaille tones and washes of white. Seen collectively, the trees
exude vitality, 8epistrophy9 not only referring to the literary and rhetorical e昀ects of repetition, but also referencing the eponymous jazz standard
composed in the 1940s by Thelonious Monk.
www.benbrown昀nearts.com
Tony Bevan, Epistrophy Red White, 2022, Acrylic and charcoal on canvas 45 x 50 cm (17 3/4 x 19 3/4 in.)