On Sunday, my wife Wendy and I went down to Deptford to the APT gallery to see a talk by the artists Geoff Rigden and Norman Toynton. Visitors to our office will have seen a few of Geoff Rigden's paintings placed strategically on our walls to give us (me at least) little sparks of joy each day. Cameraman Chris Morphet and his partner Johanna Freudenberg were at the talk too. Johanna met Geoff in the sixties while he was at the Royal College of Art painting school. Morphet, who was at the RCA film school at the time, made a film about harmonicas called "Playing The Thing" (a cult classic) in which Rigden made an appearance along with Sonny Terry, James Cotton, Duster Bennett and other "blues harp" luminaries.
In the talk on Sunday, Geoff didn't say that much but what he did say was both funny and enlightening - someone asked about the two artists working habits and Geoff related a story about the American Art critic, Clement Greenberg who had told him that Jackson Pollack had quite long periods of not painting, some days were made up of going to the store to buy beer and then drinking it, followed by sudden flurries of painting activity. I think Geoff's point was habit doesn't have too much to do with creativity, it's more a state of mind, - make your painting when you have decided what to make wherever you want to. Geoff's current favourite location to work being the kitchen table. Wendy asked whether the two artists had a special object that had stayed with them throughout their careers - Geoff remembered visiting the V and A while he was at the RCA to look at the Indian miniatures (the V and A was right next door to the old painting school) - he loved them so much that he bought a repro from the shop for "thirty bob" and its been with him ever since.
It's quite difficult to define Geoff's work, he came out of what might be called the "Abstract Expressionist" movement but there is something very startling about what he does - startling because of it's honesty, which in turn gives the paintings a magical quality. They are fascinating to look at but apparently effortlessly made - he's not laying a big idea on us, he seems to be going for something deeper and human. In the talk he told us about his annual visits to Cyprus where he spends quite a lot of time looking at ancient art - designs on ceramics, frescos and mosaics, presumably with mystical or pagan messages which he finds inspiring. Anyway Rigden's work has a similar effect on me - Geoff's treasured possession is his Indian miniature repro bought in the V and A all those years ago, mine is a 1977 drawing made by him in Cyprus hanging on our kitchen wall at home.
Photocopyright © Chris Morphet
