PAINTING THE ART OF ART 82 A concrete cube in the garden. Simon Back’s studio resembles a small bunker. Inside, a skylight radiates indirect light. The walls and floor are spattered with splashes and drips of paint, showing signs of combat. OPENNESS Back has just completed a body of paintings. They are stashed in the corner, from where he pulls them out one by one. Their format is dictated by the size of the room. “In a bigger space, I would create larger format paintings,” says Simon, as he moves to and fro, constantly alert, dressed in T-shirt, jeans and trainers. Simon Back, 55, was born and raised in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, during the Civil War. “My father, a lawyer, and my mother were from South Africa. They met and settled in Harare. My two sisters and I, though living in a protected environment, were extremely free. My memories are of the immense plains, the openness, the droughts, the light and the seasons.” He studied under the artist Helen Lieros who, with her husband, created the Delta Gallery in Harare in 1975, during the War of Liberation. They were the mentors who set him on his career path (he went on to study Fine Art in Cape Town), and introduced him to many books, books containing artists. The American Abstract Expressionists – De Kooning, Rothko and Pollock. As well as Joseph Beuys’ sketchbooks. This is when Simon began to understand the language of art. He perceives underlying landscapes and silences on the page that emphasise line. “If I were brave enough, I would follow the line, nothing but the line,” Back says, a little mysteriously. THE LINE OF LIFE A line that is sometimes supple and dense, sometimes nervy and vulnerable, often appearing as a rounded form in his paintings, like the contour of the head or as linear tracks. “They are marks,” says Simon. Marks truncated by solid The artist’s studio is a true extension of his person. For more than twenty years, Simon Back has waged an individual fight there. L’atelier de l’artiste est un véritable prolongement de sa personne. Simon Back, depuis plus de vingt ans, y mène un combat singulier.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NjMzMjI=