Fuseli Tribute I

Tribute I and II

Andrew McLeod has long been fascinated by the energy and inventiveness of the Romantic artist Henry Fuseli (1741 – 1825). While the Gallery holds two paintings and thirty-seven watercolours by Fuseli, for his source McLeod has drawn from the broader collections of the earlier artist’s work in European and American collections. Fuseli was famous for introducing an erotic dynamism to British art, serving as a precursor to 20th century psychology by his insistence on the power of the unconscious mind. This dream-like quality, combined with Fuseli’s knowledge of both classical and European literature, underpins Mcleod’s work. In Tribute I, figures drawn from Fuseli’s paintings are contained in a series of architectural boxes, whereas in Tribute II they appear as if set free to swirl and tumble through the universe without constraint. If we look closely, however, a telegraph pole links the two images, as if these spectral images are being viewed from the street outside where we live. Interspersed between these different spaces are McLeod’s own signature interventions, drawn from other parts of the digital world, or meticulously drawn and painted by the artist.

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