Terry Frost believed in the power of abstraction to evoke not merely moods, but physical sensations. During the 1990s he experimented with representing movement in his work, as in this wall relief. For Frost, spirals were associated with movement, an association he traced back to an early experience of driving on a winter morning, the sun appearing to spin as it passed behind the trees. In Red, Black and White Construction, Frost brings together paint and found objects to unsettle the space in front of the canvas. The spirals seem to reach out towards the viewer, but the effect is disturbed by the grids of flat black dots which intrude from the edges of the piece. The two discs, discarded objects found by FrostÂ’s son, provide a physical counterpoint to the spirals, while the strip which pierces their centres is the only thing holding the two halves of the canvas together, creating a palpable physical tension.
More information
Title of artwork, date
Red, Black and White Construction, 1996
Date supported
2013
Medium and material
Oil paint on canvas with pre-painted found discs and coloured leather laces
Dimensions
165 x 74 x 8 cm
Grant
5000
Total cost
14000

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