Collage to Painting: Richard Dadd and Yinka Shonibare

'And if it is true that the image still has the function of speaking, of transmitting something consubstantial with language, we must recognize that it already no longer says the same thing; and that by its own plastic values painting engages in an experiment that will take it farther and farther from language, whatever the superficial identity of the theme.' Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason, Michael Foucault, 1961, pg 15.

Within this entry I am interested in exploring what happens during the process of painting and how this contributes to the artist's delivery of the underlying content in their work via the analysis of the paintings of Yinka Shonibare and Richard Dadd. Initially it may be worth considering why use the medium of paint? A visit to the Reality exhibition at the Sainsbury’s Centre in Norwich a show of contemporary British painters reveals that painting is still very much alive as a contemporary medium. The show focuses on artists whose work is underpinned by an interaction with the real world as opposed to conceptual concerns. However it begs the question why and how is this preferable to using a photograph, collage or alternative 2-dimensional representations? How does painting alter, extend and elaborate the processes that these other mediums offer?

Two contrasting artists whose work I have been exploring and loosely tie in with some of the ideas around which my own practice is centred are Yinka Shonibare (1962- ) and Richard Dadd (1817-1886). In Maxa 2003, Shonibare substitutes canvas for small regimented circles of African batik fabric decorated on the front and side. The troubled history of the fabric, which was introduced to Africa by British manufacturers via Dutch colonizers in the nineteenth century contrasts effectively with the visual pleasure of the patterns created. The work becomes a metaphor for excess and exploitation. The use of everyday cloth to create high art acts as a way of questioning the relationship between commercial decadence and third-world exploitation.

‘But actually, the fabrics are not really authentically African the way people think. They prove to have a crossbred cultural background quite of their own. And it’s the fallacy of that signification that I like. It’s the way I view culture- it’s an artificial construct.’  Art News online, interview by Pernilla Holmes, October 2002

Yinka Shonibare, Maxa 2003, Circles of partially painted fabric on a deep blue wall.

Richard Dadd’s work centres on landscape and nature and draws upon subject matter often evoked from his memory. Many of his paintings utilize surrealist imagery and alternative worlds and include dream figures, fairy creatures and demons. Whilst travelling in Egypt in 1842, Dadd underwent a dramatic personality change becoming violent and delusional. On his return in 1843, he was diagnosed to be mentally unstable before killing his father. Subsequently he was committed to a psychiatric hospital where he continued to paint.

‘On my return from travel I was roused to a consideration of the subjects which I had previously never dreamt of, or thought about, connected with self… I know not whence they came, although I could not question their propriety, nor could I separate myself from what appeared my fate…’ Biography of Richard Dadd, Patricia Allderidge, 2006

Richard Dadd, The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke, 1855-1864, Oil on Canvas.

It is worth noting the fashion with which both Dadd and Shonibare have utilized their materials in order to accentuate the underlying meaning within their work. Both are dealing loosely with ideas around otherness. 

'Otherness is a fundamental category of human thought.  Thus it is that no group ever sets itself up as the One without at once setting up the Other over and against itself.'

Women, the Family, and Freedom: 1880-1950, Simon De Beauvoir, 1949, pg 423

Shonibare’s work is brightly coloured, sumptuous and decorative drawing in the viewer’s gaze. It is only upon further investigation that one realizes the back-story and associations of the fabric that has been used. The corner less circles Shonibare uses to frame his compositions are much less formal than a conventional rectangular format. By utilizing both the front and sides of the objects however they come to represent a visual metaphor for what is at the centre or at the margin thus establishing an informal hierarchy and relating back to his original concerns around race and class.  

Yinka Shonibare, Line Painting 2003, emulsion and acrylic on Dutch Wax printed cotton & painted wall.

Dadd’s otherness is a product of his separation from society due to his mental breakdown, incarceration and classification as a madman and subsequent perception of existing outside of the realms of civilized society. His paintings are highly stylized and filled with microscopic details, intricate decoration, rich colours and formal compositions featuring figures occupying a variety of landscapes. It is only on closer inspection that it is possible to make out who these figures are and what activities they are engaged in to realize that these are no ordinary pastoral scenes. The figures are a curious mixture of pantomime Kings, Queens, pirates and fairies mixed up with people who could have stepped off a mid-Victorian street. Many of the characters have distorted heads and further observation reveals other miniature figures that magically appear within the compositions. Perspective appears to be practically non-existent and the result is both simultaneously beautiful and disturbing. 

Richard Dadd, Contradiction; Oberon & Titania, 1854-1858, Oil on Canvas.

Both artists operating in different centuries have utilized paint in an opposing yet highly effective fashion to vastly differing ends. Dadd’s paintings achieve something that would be impossible via any other medium. Not only has he created painstakingly detailed and intricate compositions, his paintings render in detail the product of the inner workings of his feverish imagination. The act of painting enables Dadd to articulate his feelings and give a form to this inner turmoil. This is not something that could be achieved as effectively via a collage or a photograph. The attention to detail, perfection and visual aesthetic beauty and strangeness of his compositions combine to draw in the viewers gaze so that they are able to contemplate and examine the complexities of the work without necessarily understanding it or having to pass a value judgment on it. If this serves as an effective tool to capture and draw in the curiosity of the viewer then it is possible that this may prompt a further dialogue within the viewers mind as to what the artists intentions were in creating the work and enabling a more complex analysis.

Shonibare makes use of pattern and texture in a non-representational fashion as a way of conveying his message. His bright, showy colours are highly seductive and appealing. His pieces unlike Dadd’s however are not representations that have been taken from the real world and are created using patterns and abstracted forms arranged in such a fashion as to create a formal sense of unity via the harmony of the painted surface. However once drawn in it is only after realizing that the relationship of the cloth to the painted surface has such a strong bearing on the composition that the viewer begins to realize that there is more going on than just a superficial and decorative rendering of paint. Once the viewer realizes the importance of the origin of the cloth it changes the relationship between the artwork and the spectator in a similar fashion to the background story around Dadd’s mental breakdown and subsequent incarceration. In both of the artists’ work the painted surface acts as a way of capturing and enthralling the spectators gaze, however it is only after scratching through the surface of this polished and veneered facade that it is possible to realize the true message, commentary and artists intention lurking below.