An interview with artist Neil Gall conducted by Emanuel von Baeyer, London in conjunction with the publication of a new edition of lithographs by the artist, Materials for Reasoning.
“… enough people do go further, investigate more fully and those viewers are the more interesting to me. For others it’s just eye candy and a great illusion, a cheap thrill perhaps but you know even at that level someone is getting some kind of visual pleasure and that’s not so bad right?”
Had you worked with lithography prior to our portfolio of eight lithographs: ‘Materials for Reasoning’?
This portfolio is the first proper engagement I’ve had with lithography. A few years ago I made some photo-lithographs overlaid with bits of screen-printing at The Curwen Studio and that was great but you know a little detached from my normal way of generating images. Working with Lee Turner ( printer at Hole Editions) in Newcastle was a very different experience. The ‘Materials for Reasoning’ works are printed from direct drawings made on a ball grained aluminium plate rather than the traditional litho stone but with pretty much the same effect when printed and I felt much more in touch, attuned if you like and involved in the whole process.
Your sculptures and paintings are depictions of found objects and discarded material, cast in bronze and rendered as faithful as the model. I’ve always wanted to ask you; how do you cope with the response from viewers who focus on the illusion that you create rather than the artwork itself?
Yes it’s nearly always the first response from people who don’t know the work so well. I’m less sensitive to it than I used to be. If it’s a way into things and a deeper understanding or reading to what might be going on then it’s all well and good. Luckily enough people do go further, investigate more fully and those viewers are the more interesting to me. For others it’s just eye candy and a great illusion, a cheap thrill perhaps but you know even at that level someone is getting some kind of visual pleasure and that’s not so bad right?
Looking at the lithographs, their resemblance to the sculptures is less strong and I see they are gaining their own individual depiction, far off from the original image. What would you say?
I guess so, I mean most of the original models for the lithographs don’t even exist anymore and were never evolved to bronze or cast resin sculptures, so the memory of that original object has faded. I worked on the plates from photographs of the originals and that creates a further distance from the source. Also the relationship to my drawing is not so strong, it’s a litho type mark on the plate, close to a drawing for many people but not for me. I really had to learn to love the mark this particular tool gives, a greasy litho crayon is not at all like a pencil or bit of charcoal. Once I’d accepted it’s limitations ( it can’t keep a point for very long and that’s how I normally draw with something very sharp) and learned how it transfers it’s qualities through the printing process it was all ok. I mean something else for example , it can create a fairly dark tone pretty quickly, which is great and immediate, exciting really but overdo it and it won’t print black…so you have to learn.
You have been in the game for many years, internationally shown and your work is placed in European and American museums. The portfolio Materials for Reasoning is also now part of the collection of the British Museum. Recently I have noticed a comeback and you have had shows simultaneously. As your work is time consuming, how do you cope with that demand?
I like having exhibitions and if things line up a bit as they have recently in Berlin, London and Miami then I just go with it. I’ll work out a schedule and keep to it in an extremely rigorous and I suppose slightly mad way! I’ll work out what can be made months in advance and work to make it happen. I don’t see any contradiction in this with some kind of romantic idea around creativity. If I’m making work then that’s creative, if I’m making lots of work then it’s creative and actually exciting. There is an adrenalin rush with the pressure.
We try to display you alongside artists of all periods, from Old Masters to emerging young contemporary artists. Who or what would you like to see next to you?
Ok, Poussin for starters. I’ve always been fascinated by the idea that models were made, clay figures etc in the preparations towards his compositions but I also love the extreme control of the paintings themselves. I mean almost clinical but with enough painterly albeit small shifts to make me excited as my eye wanders across the painting surface. Something of his adherence to Stoicism I find rather appealing also!
Maybe a work by Yves Tanguy, sculptural surrealism, right up my street and works by Hans Bellmer, tinted photographs or drawings, all amazing. Contemporary art, try Carroll Dunham, rude a bit crude but always surprising.
