Foraminfera (Further Variations)

Like many artists, Roger Wilson discovered D‘Arcy ThompsonÂ’s On Growth & Form as a student, but revisited it last year when he and fellow artist Sam Ainsley staged an exhibition at the Glasgow Print Studio called After Growth & Form. Following this exhibition, Wilson was invited by the DÂ’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum at the University of Dundee to create new work directly inspired by the MuseumÂ’s collections. These three paintings represent a selection of a series of six works inspired by models of foraminifera, microscopic creatures whose multitude of mathematically precise forms fascinated DÂ’Arcy Thompson, and which proved the key catalyst for his ground-breaking work. Wilson generally makes paintings in groups or series, either (as in this case) initiated by direct observation or as the result of improvisation around eccentric geometry, to the point when the painting takes on the characteristics of a self-generating ‘organismÂ’. Wilson has built up these images using layers of paint, masking off different parts of the paper – the works are thus ‘grownÂ’ in a strict pattern similar to the foraminifera themselves. This acquisition was presented by the Art Fund and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation