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DALE
Born near Liverpool in the UK on 13 September 1950, he lived in Canada from 1952 to 1977. Today he lives and works in Strasbourg (France). Paul Guérin HEAD OF COMMUNICATION AT THE CEEAC: “In Roger DALE’s paintings, the first impression of stillness, common with nudes, still lifes and landscapes, that satisfies a desire to […]
Artworks of the artist
Born near Liverpool in the UK on 13 September 1950, he lived in Canada from 1952 to 1977.
Today he lives and works in Strasbourg (France).
Paul Guérin
HEAD OF COMMUNICATION AT THE CEEAC:
“In Roger DALE’s paintings, the first impression of stillness, common with nudes, still lifes and landscapes, that satisfies a desire to reproduce the scene down to the smallest detail, is very quickly belied by the variations – vast and subtle – in luminosity and clarity, and the dynamism of the brush strokes that generate them, all of which contribute to the extreme originality of his art.
The apparent stillness of the subject, in view of which the painter has to cope with the path of the sun and the flow of water outdoors, or the presence of the model in the workshop, is primarily disturbed by the unusual composition of the painting. In the landscapes, the line of the ground is often placed either very low, so as to show the plant masses in all their fullness, or very high so that their reflection in the water supplants their “outdoor” vision.
This composition method brings the gaze in contact with a brush stroke that is more sensitive to the strength of expansion of the boughs of a tree from its trunk – almost invisible – than concerned with exactly rendering its foliage. The energy of the broad brush strokes holds its own against the momentum with which these trees soar up to conquer a sky that is reduced to a couple of holes of blue. A diffuse light appears to well up in contrast with the ground, in a haziness where colour, with its free and uniform spread, marks the artist’s departure from figures.
The large size of these paintings only serves to respond to the opening of space with which Roger Dale confronts himself: while their width offers the eyes the breadth of a panoramic picture, their height composition also demonstrates the temporality and dynamism of the painting.
The lower section of the only nude displayed in this exhibition leaves the red outline sketch, the sweeping strokes used to overlay the blue and the free paint runs on the surface all visible. The greatest luminosity is withdrawn into the depths of the scene, on the sleeve of a shirt and the casement of a window which itself evokes the back of a frame. The figure, seated between the empty surface of a mirror and a skull placed near her, is bathed in a deliberate fuzziness, the gaze only drawing closer to her nudity after having run over the painted “chaos” in the shadows.
This modern vanitas reveals more explicitly than the landscapes what, in the paintings of Roger Dale stems, in his own words, from a “combat with reality which leads to an almost miraculous state of harmony where the painting begins to resemble the subject, at the price of concentration that never slackens and the painter’s absorption in his subject.”
There is an unsettling affinity between gestures that are left as residue in the secrecy of these canvases and the transformation of the image of a group of trees by their reflection on the surface of water that appears to be calm. In a discreet metamorphosis, blocks of greenery fluidify with the flow of the current, in the same movement as flashes of clear colour concentrate the diffuse light of a sky on certain swirls, a sky pushed away by the shadow of the leaves. Just as we were able to talk about a “dramatization of the landscape” with Caspar David Friedrich, faced with Dale’s paintings we feel a tension that has been overcome between the masses of living, mobile matter, the changing fluxes of the light – curiously, a breach of sky on one of the canvases has the shape and luminosity of a tornado – and the time, both material and human, taken to create a painting.
The rare fact that the works of Roger Dale do not bear an indication of a date places them outside of a time where we could follow the development of a style; the surprising choice of their titles “Ne me laisse pas comme cela”, “Act of the heart”, etc.) on the contrary turns the mind to the sensitive, meditative experience, risked each time with an equal intensity.
Each subject completed over one day, his landscapes seem to have all the moments of the day rooted in their matt light, up to letting a “cosmic” dimension surface of “Everything draws me to you”, where the natural elements would have lost their qualities and above all their familiar proximity to give a glimpse of the forces in play in their very visibility. Under the swirling and vibrant density of the trees, a ground stretches out with a consistency of thick clouds with reddish hues and a curve that frees the gaze of all weight by suddenly projecting it above an unknown star emerging from its night.”
Permanently displayed in the Galerie
EXHIBITIONS/PERFORMANCES
OFFICIAL PURCHASES
Ministry of Industry, France.
City of Geneva, Switzerland.
European Parliament, Strasbourg, France.
Ministry of Culture, Bosnia-Herzegovina.
National Gallery, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.
UBS Bank, Strasbourg, France.
March, Freiburg, Germany.
OTHER PROJECTS COMPLETED
“PORTRAIT DE LA CORSE” creation of a series of paintings for a private order, Marseilles.
Two months in Egypt, creation of a series of paintings for the El Zanaty foundation, Cairo, Luxor.
Accompanying a humanitarian convey, creation of paintings and exhibitions of French artists, Moldova, Romania.
Assistant stage designer, “JAB-Filmoproduction”, Munich, Germany.
Painting for the inauguration, European Parliament, Strasbourg.
“FACE A FACE” 100 self-portraits in 10 days, Galerie Nicole Buck Art Contemporain, Strasbourg.
WORKS OF PERSONAL ACTIVISM
“100 VUES DE LA LIBERTE”: one hundred paintings created within the complex of the Struthof concentration camp, from 1 August to 20 September 1994. Exhibited at Natzwiller, Strasbourg, and at the CEAAC Strasbourg – , Freiburg, Zagreb, Macon, Sarajevo, Brussels, Rostock, Council of Europe.
“PORTRAIT INACHEVE”: creation of a series of portraits of the survivors of the siege of Goražde, Bosnia-Herzegovina.
“PAYSAGES APRES ECLIPSE”: series of paintings created in Pocitelj, a town destroyed in 1992, Bosnia-Herzegovina.
TEACHER
Ecole Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg, France.
CONTRIBUTOR
Ecole Supérieure d’Art Dramatique du Théatre National de Strasbourg, France.
Kunsthochschule, Weissensee, Berlin, Germany.
Leicester Polytechnic, UK.
Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Freiburg, Germany.
Alberta College of Art, Canada.
Faculty of Fine Arts (South Valley University) Luxor, Egypt.
AWARDS
Queen Elizabeth Prize for Drawing, Canada
Elizabeth T. Greenshields Award, Canada
Prix de la Région Alsace, France
One artist show – Art Karlsruhe – 2010
La Galeria exhibition private viewing – Barcelona
Silent Spaces exhibition – Munich
One artist show – Art Karlsruhe – 2009
CEAAC Strasbourg from 14 March to 3 May 2009
Treptower Park exhibition 06/2008
Glass Art Fund – 02/2006
Château de Neuershausen – 09/2007
Galerie de l’Arsenal 07/2008
OTHER EVENTS
EADS video teaching
Assignment in Egypt
Perception drawing classes
PERSONAL EXHIBITIONS
1979
Galerie Cour-du-Cygne, GENEVA, CH.
Galerie l’Empreinte, STRASBOURG, F.
1980
Galerie l’Empreinte, STRASBOURG, F.
Galerie Regio, FREIBURG, D.
1981
Château de Neuerhausen, FREIBURG, D.
1982
Galerie l’Empreinte, STRASBOURG, F.
Galerie Regio, FREIBURG, D.
1983
Galerie du Rhin, COLMAR, F.
Galerie Laetitia, MARSEILLES, F.
1984
U Pumonte, CARGESE, F.
Galerie Laetitia, MARSEILLES, F.
1985
Galerie Regio, FREIBURG, D.
1986
Ancienne Douane, STRASBOURG, F.
La Belladonna, LUXOR, Egypt.
Galerie du Rhin, COLMAR, F.
Galerie Cour Saint-Pierre, GENEVA, CH.
1987
Galerie Guido de Spa, AMSTERDAM, NL.
Nicole Buck Art Contemporain, STRASBOURG F.
1988
Leys Art Contemporain, BRUSELS, B.
Galerie Regio, FREIBURG, D.
Kunst Kabinet Münter, DUSSELDORF, D.
1989
Galerie Philippe Frégnac, PARIS, F.
Galerie Antoine de Galbert, GRENOBLE, F.
Galerie du Rhin, COLMAR, F.
Triangle Galleries, LOS ANGELES, USA.
1990
Nicole Buck Art Contemporain, STRASBOURG, F.
1991
Galerie Regio, FREIBURG, D.
Galerie Kohnert, BERLIN, D.
1992
Galerie Lez’art, CANNES, F.
Galerie du Rhin, COLMAR, F.
Nicole Buck Art Contemporain, STRASBOURG, F.
1993
Galerie “La Marge”, AJACCIO, F.
1995
Galerie Regio, FREIBURG, D.
Galerie Brûlée, STRASBOURG, F.
1996
Galerie Cour Saint-Pierre, GENEVA, CH.
Administrative tribunal, STRASBOURG, F.
Galerie Lez’art, NICE, F.
Grayson Gallery WOODSTOCK VT, USA.
1997
Private exhibition for FR3, PARIS, F. – Galerie Brûlée, STRASBOURG, F.
1998
Galerie Hettlage, MUNICH, D.
2000
Antiker Plastiker Museum, BERLIN, D.
2001
Galerie Vendôme, PARIS, F.
ST’ART, Galerie Lezart (Nice), STRASBOURG, F.
Galerie Hettlage, MUNICH, D.
“Cathedral” Council of Europe STRASBOURG, F.
2002
Collegium Artisticum, SARAJEVO, BIH.
Galerie Brûlée, STRASBOURG, F.
A.J.M., MONACO, MC.
2003
Galerie Brûlée, STRASBOURG, F.
Galerie Hettlage, MUNICH, D.
2004
Galerie Cour St Pierre, GENEVA, CH.
Galerie Annen, KUSSNACHT, CH.
Elisabeth Schneider-Stiftung, FREIBURG, D.
2006
Michel Seybel Glass-Art-Fund, VENDENHEIM, F.
2007
Galerie Marschall, Neuershausen, FREIBURG, D.
2008
Institut Français, “Treptower Park”, BERLIN
Galerie de l’Arsenal, NANCY, F.
2009
“One artist show”, Art KARLSRUHE, D.
“Louxor, ici et 12 heures de natures mortes”
CEAAC, STRASBOURG, F.
Galerie Sillage, PAIMPOL, F.
“Silent Spaces”, Galerie Anna-Maria Burger, MUNICH, D.
La Galeria, BARCELONA, E.
2010
“One artist show”, Art KARLSRUHE, D.
Faculty of Fine Arts (South Valley University) LUXOR, EG.
Galerie L’Estampe, Strasbourg