Darren Flook presents Simon Linke’s first solo show in London for ten years and 35 years since he first showed his now famous paintings of Artforum magazine adverts in New York and London. Simon Linke (b. 1958 Australia) has been meticulously painting the same subject for over 35 years and the exhibition at Darren Flook’s gallery in Fitrovia, London provokes the viewer to ask “why?’ What is it about the advertisements in an American art magazine which are taken out by commercial galleries to advertise their exhibitions that has continuously fascinated the London based Linke? The exhibition also asks the...
Darren Flook presents Simon Linke’s first solo show in London for ten years and 35 years since he first showed his now famous paintings of Artforum magazine adverts in New York and London.
Simon Linke (b. 1958 Australia) has been meticulously painting the same subject for over 35 years and the exhibition at Darren Flook’s gallery in Fitrovia, London provokes the viewer to ask “why?’ What is it about the advertisements in an American art magazine which are taken out by commercial galleries to advertise their exhibitions that has continuously fascinated the London based Linke?
The exhibition also asks the viewer to question what has changed in the last 35 years. The paintings, although of the same subject, and in the same format (square, like the magazine itself), are very different. The paintings from the 1980s are almost clinical in their exactitude of appropriation, whilst the current paintings drip and explode with texture whilst remaining faithful to their source material, a technical balancing act that can take months to complete. The other aspect that has changed is the magazine and with it the advertising, galleries and the power structures of the art world that the original paintings highlighted.
In 1987, print advertising was how information was distributed and how money, and with it an idea of power, was displayed. Today Artforum is one of many art magazines and print is only one of many possible formats and much like oil painting itself, it’s only one option, but it’s Linke’s exclusion of all but the print adverts from one magazine that highlights the changes and focuses our attention. Simon Linke’s dedication and constancy has elevated the paintings to an iconic status removed from the original context of both the magazine, the galleries that paid for the adverts and the artists names listed. After 35 years of appropriation from a single source Linke’s paintings now stand apart from their initial inspiration.
