Jack Chambers: the light from the darkness, silver paintings and film work, offered a rare opportunity to study a selection of works from a specific period in the artist’s development. Chambers’s art production from 1966 to 1967 marked a major transition in the rethinking of his approach to painting. The artist focused on establishing a link between an exploration of the effects of light upon a painted surface through a reduction of colour and the use of reflective aluminum pigment that produced images with a film-like quality in the final result. Simultaneously, he also involved himself with filmmaking, which served as a complementary medium through which he introduced ideas that would stimulate this new direction of his painting.

The sprayed aluminum paint that he used to produce the grounds for this series of images achieved a more neutral result. Images could be viewed as positive or negative depending on the light source. Chambers’s intention in moving from painting to film was to begin an examination of a process that would allow for analyzing the manner in which individuals perceived the world. The artist felt that his painting may be too static; film would introduce a more dynamic means of visualizing.

Filmmaking for Chambers was a way in which he could move away from the strict discipline of his early art training which he perceived as constraining. His personal approach to the medium of film was less planned and more spontaneous in its construction in comparison to his approach to painting.

 

Organized by Museum London
Curated by Mark Cheetham and Ihor Holubizky