A Brief Overview
John Squire’s artwork has a legacy dating back over twenty-five years. When asked at his inaugural exhibitions in 2007 ‘ When did you start to paint again?’ the answer, very clearly was ‘I have never stopped’.
These paintings, like the man, have been the product of reclusive obsession as Squire is driven to create through the primitive gesture of mark making. For much of this history, Squire's chosen gallery was the album sleeve, a vast showcase for the image in reproduction, yet the original remained a private concern. This form of mediation brought Squire's artwork and in the early years the work of American Abstraction to a vast and new audience of young music fans. In many ways Squire's actions served to ‘de-classify’ modern art as the preserve of the middle classes as his Pollock pastiches became visual emblems for a cultural movement which transcended cultural hierarchy, pervading music, fashion and art.
2004 was a turning point in Squire's creative career. Having released his second solo album, Marshall’s House in which each track was dedicated to a painting by legendary American painter Edward Hopper, the balance of influences tipped. Music ceased to take the centre stage as the drive to focus full time on his artwork took hold. In order to draw a line under his past practice Squire exhibited for the first and last time the original artwork which had been celebrated on the album covers of the past twenty years. These dual exhibitions at the Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA), London and in a large warehouse space in central Manchester saw unprecedented audiences pay homage to a time, music and aesthetic, which Squire had been pivotal in the creation off, now laid to rest.
This period of cultural exorcism, freed Squire to focus his energies on creating an aesthetic, which reflected his own ideals and vision. In typical fashion he retreated to his home studio and for over a period of two and a half years, to explore form, layering and tone within the canvas, excavate beneath the surface of the canvas and creating sculptural forms from within the image. This intense period of experimentation allowed Squire to free up his style to introduce new materials and work with their texture as the guiding point for the work. He moved away from the conventions of abstraction to work at the extremities of complexity and calm within his works, exploring from the surface down and the inverse of the canvas out. These extraordinary years, in short, created an aesthetic which is inimitably John Squire's’ own and which, with some persuasion, was ready to be presented for public and critical attention.
These exhibitions took place in July 2007 (Smithfield Gallery, London), and September 2007 (Dazed & Confused Gallery, London). Whilst much of this artwork is now sold to private collectors, all of the works from these shows are documented on this site under the ‘archive’ section. The Smithfield show exhibited a diverse body of explorations into colour and built surfaces on the canvases as Squire employed a bold cocktail of sand, glue and impasto oils to demarcate the individual layers which make up the surfaces of the canvas. This technique was more finely honed within the Dazed Gallery show where a neutral palate mixed with opaque and transparent layers of wax created a glass like structure as fine films of tone were constructed against the rough surface of a Hessian backdrop. This show also saw Squire's departure into mixed media with the introduction of brown papers to add more sculptural dimension to the work.
Following these initial successes, Squire is now emerging as a sought after artist. He has three more exhibitions confirmed, March 2008, Signal Gallery, London, October 2008 at the SW1 Gallery, London and culminating in a major solo show at the Gallery Oldham over the summer of 2009 (See exhibitions for further details). John's current direction reveals an intricate, serene abstract landscape, intersected with slithers of found garments displaying traditional tweeds, patterns and residues of the owners wear and tear. This collection entitled ‘Re-Engineered Garments’, re-appropriates used clothing to reduce our focus onto the intricacies of the weave and texture of the cloth which Squire integrates into the textural surface of the painting. A very English statement from a very English painter; these images resurrect ghosts of the wearer(s), instilling a compassionate connection with these unknown authors. This is undoubtedly Squire's most prolific work to date, reflecting an artist with a mature understanding of his own creative direction, beautifully executed in these tranquil canvases.
Vivienne Gaskin