Haroun Hayward
A Painting for Wilhelmina Barns-Graham and Drexciya, 2025
Oil, oil stick, and gesso on wood panel
123.6 x 93.8 x 5.5 cm
48 5/8 x 36 7/8 x 2 1/8 in
48 5/8 x 36 7/8 x 2 1/8 in
Hayward's paintings are a celebration of hybridity, harmoniously converging art historical and musical references with distinct modes of making. The paintings honour what informs Hayward's personal and artistic narrative -...
Hayward's paintings are a celebration of hybridity, harmoniously converging art historical and musical references with distinct modes of making. The paintings honour what informs Hayward's personal and artistic narrative - rave culture, abstract expressionism, post war British landscape painting and his mother's textile collection. Repetition and remixing, to borrow from music terminology, are key to the artist's painting process. Hayward likens the variation of forms in his paintings to the practice of sampling in electronic music.
The title of the work honours both British abstract painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham and the Detroit techno duo Drexciya. The top half of the painting is inspired by a renowned series of works by Barns-Graham called the ‘Glacier’ paintings. Here Hayward borrows from formal elements of her visual language to produce an abstraction of intersecting lines and rich colours over a light scumbled base. In the bottom left part of the work Hayward reimagines a painting of Canne by Edward Vuillard, implementing more intense colours and an undercoat of bright ochre. Creating his own tantric grid of greens and yellows in the bottom middle section, he weaves a physical and spiritual meditation. Emulating embroidery, the bottom right section is delicately textured oil stick, where interlocking shapes are drawn from a section of Iranian carpet pattern. Hayward brings together these diverse array of influences to complete his symbiotic vision.
The title of the work honours both British abstract painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham and the Detroit techno duo Drexciya. The top half of the painting is inspired by a renowned series of works by Barns-Graham called the ‘Glacier’ paintings. Here Hayward borrows from formal elements of her visual language to produce an abstraction of intersecting lines and rich colours over a light scumbled base. In the bottom left part of the work Hayward reimagines a painting of Canne by Edward Vuillard, implementing more intense colours and an undercoat of bright ochre. Creating his own tantric grid of greens and yellows in the bottom middle section, he weaves a physical and spiritual meditation. Emulating embroidery, the bottom right section is delicately textured oil stick, where interlocking shapes are drawn from a section of Iranian carpet pattern. Hayward brings together these diverse array of influences to complete his symbiotic vision.
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