Taking its title from Symphony No. 4 “The Inextinguishable”, by Danish composer Carl Nielsen, this new body of work is testament to Irvin’s unwavering belief in art’s centrality to life.
The impact of music on Irvin’s belief system has been previously documented; his admiration of Alfred Brendel and Harrison Birtwhistle is well known, for example. In this exhibition however, he has turned to the sentiments expressed in Nielsen’s “The Inextinguishable”. Inextinguishable, translated from the Danish “uudslukkelige” which can also be interpreted as ‘life-force’, relates to that which is inextinguishable: life; energy; spirit. Written during 1916 in the midst of the First World War, Nielsen wished to express “the elemental will to live”.
A statement by Nielsen has been at the forefront of Irvin’s mind recently: “The most elementary aspects of music are Light, Life and Motion. … It’s all those things that have Will, and the Craving for Life that cannot be suppressed, that I’ve wanted to depict”.
Here is a video from his retrospective at Kings Place last year.
Thanks for the introduction to Albert's work
ReplyDeleteHere is a link to a nice abstraction show in San Francisco:
http://www.renabranstengallery.com/Geary_Tour2010.html
Isabel Wyatt