Paintings 1999

If You Were Here 1999, oil and acrylic on linen 213 x 152 cm

Palingenesis 1999, oil and acrylic on linen 213 x 152 cm

Uz'zi 1999, four panels, acrylic and charcoal on 650gsm hand-made paper 329 x 253 cm

Adullam 1999, oil and acrylic on linen 213 x 213 cm

Ulai 1999, oil and acrylic on linen 213 x 152 cm

Didymus 1999, oil and acrylic on linen 213 x 213 cm

Maz'zaroth - The Twelve Signs 1999, mixed media on board 225 x 366 cm

Shealtiel - I have asked of God 1999, oil and acrylic on linen 152 x 213 cm

Oc'ran 1999, oil and acrylic on linen 152 x 213 cm

Chorazin 1999, oil and acrylic on linen 152 x 152 cm

Jeho'ash 1999, oil and acrylic on linen 116 x 122 cm

Beth Birei 1999, oil and acrylic on linen 122 x 122 cm

Kate 1999, oil and acrylic on linen 213 x 213 cm

Othiniel 1999, oil and acrylic on linen 152 x 152 cm

Omphalos 1999, oil and acrylic on linen 152 x 152 cm

Zepho 1999, oil and acrylic on linen 122 x 116 cm

Untitled (1-4) 1999, oil and acrylic on linen 36 x 28 cm each

Untitled (5-8) 1999, oil and acrylic on linen 36 x 28 cm each

Untitled (9-12) 1999, oil and acrylic on linen 36 x 28 cm each

Ze'lek 1999, oil and acrylic on linen 122 x 122 cm

Admatha 1999, oil, bitumen, acrylic, shellac, artists varnish, linen, paper, board, and found objects on MDF 184 x 184 cm

Exhibited

Nellie Castan Gallery

Date

1999

About

TOTEM & TABOO: The Paintings of Robert Doble

Robert will be opening his second exhibition with Nellie Castan Gallery. The works encompass a series of large paintings on the dualities of exposure and disclosure. The canvases are dark and heavy but their weight is alleviated by the elegance of painterly gesture.

Robert Doble studied at the Reigate School of Art in Surrey and later at the Croydon College of Art and Chelsea Art School, London. He is currently living and working in Kyneton, Victoria.

Doble's work is steeped in the tradition of twentieth century Expressionist painting – it pays homage to early Jackson Pollock, the psychoanalytical paintings; the work of the French Abstract Expressionist artists with their loaded canvases; the objets trouves of Support Surface; and perhaps most of all the gestural imprints of Spanish painters such as Antonio Tapies.

The traditions that these primal paintings tap into stem from our unconscious store of memories, memories that are collective and like tribal art are expressed by symbols that are totemic to twentieth century western art. The totems are written over with letters, overriding the imagery. The gestural strokes and signs mask the content and are stretched over the surface like a tight mask.

Doble's paintings acknowledge the tradition of expressionist art which has always operated between the gestural sweep of broad paint across a canvas with the iconic marking, the stamp, the image, the recognised symbol – the totem and taboo of expressionist art.

Dr Helen Toplis