edwardpovey
WHITE BOWL
Edward Povey
2010 - 2011
Oil on linen
40 x 40 inches
Signed and dated upper left
In the artist's own collection
In Edward Povey's early notes about this painting, the setting for this scene always appeared to be in an attic. A barely used room at the top of a building.
A couple, perhaps in their twenties, observed a naked child standing in a bowl of water. Originally the young man simply held his hand out in an effeminate manner, but later he came to hold the appropriate towel for the child.
It seemed to the artist that the painting could gain more power by merely implying its sexual drama, and so the boy became clothed, and the watching couple fell into deeper and deeper shadow. The resulting work presents a deliberately obscure situation, shadowy and oblique, and quietly inhabiting the territory between tender and abusive. Those who know the paintings of Edward Povey will notice the appearance of new approaches to brushwork arising in this piece.