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Black Shadow, Sun in Tree, 1987. Charcoal
and Pastel
76.2 cm x 55.9 cm. Ken Kiff |
His fantasy world was not an alternative to
reality but an integral part of it.(1) He was willing
to express uncertainty alongside confidence and was obsessed by
unifying the plethora of disparate images available to him. The
process involved was a dialogue between the artist and himself and
with the elements within the picture plane. Kiff's working method
involved the nurturing of the surface, allowing shapes, figures,
feelings to assume a life of their own. The concern foremost in
this method was the process rather than the finished product and
the search for sense or meaning in one's own life as well as in
relation to the wider world. The openness required in this approach
was firmly anchored by Kiff's respect for and proficiency in the
craft of picture-making. The self-awareness involved was constantly
won: it was the artist's view that by being in touch with inner
experience, his imagery would be informed by the world around him.
Unlike much Neo-Expressionists painting
of the 1980s where one senses that the artist was "at the mercy
of the irrational imagery"(2), Ken Kiff's work in this
vein had developed over thirty years. The activity of painting and
drawing was for Kiff a reflective and tender activity as well as
an arduous and ruthless one. The result was a poetry that defines
human experience, that conjured primal instincts. They seem closer
to fairy tales than dreams, however, Kiff's experience of Jungian
psychoanalysis gave him a familiarity and confidence to draw upon
images from his subconscious. The scores of animals, birds, human
figures that move in and out of his works often appear to symbolise
past forces and experiences.
The Little Man became a central character
in Kiff's work from the early 1960s. He wore many different hats.
He could be sad, inquisitive, grotesque or serene. He expressed
the full range of human emotions and more often than not he was
the quiet adventurer. Kiff said he was a self-portrait as much as
any other artists' characters are. Norbert Lynton observes:
The little man we encounter in Ken Kiff's
paintings, a manikin close to caricature, is the artist himself,
a pilgrim making his way through the world.(3)
Of his figures Kiff said:
"I like them to be calm, to come
together on the way, friendly rather than grotesque ... there
is not a lot of aggression.(4)
In all of Kiff's work his images spilled
from one work to another - his triptych of the 1980s is very successful,
displaying the ability Kiff had to structure such a work and balance
colour and tonal strength with the shapes and images . In Triptych:
Empty Street, Shadow Above a River, Sea Space, (1986-88) at
first glance Kiff used areas of black to delineate shapes and separate
areas on the plane (though each becomes a strong presence in itself).
The subtle use of very dark purple and brown (not straight black)
however, are what makes the dark areas harmonise with his tonal
palette and become evocative subjects themselves. They are at once
empty spaces, formal devices, a black cloud or river and in the
lower central panel Shadow Above a River, (1986-88) what
appears to be the shadow of the viewer. Certainly the viewer feels
welcome in this world. Kiff's attitude was one of openness and there
is scope for others to suggest meaning and involvement in the artist's
quest.
Kiff's use of colour was exemplary - his
sensual application and then ruthless scraping back of the hard
board is employed until the image sings harmoniously. In his work,
basic questions seemed to beg answers: Where do these images come
from? What determines quality? How do they sit in relation to early
twentieth century modernist art? Can the principles of optimistic
progress be revitalised in a later period? Paul Klee spoke of how
an image came into existence in On Modern Art, in 1924. As
Martha Kapos noted in her discussion of Ken Kiff's work in 1986:
It is curious that in spite of the
widespread re-emergence of figuration in Europe and America there
has been so little critical discussion either of how images occur,
how they relate to the formal elements that constitute painting,
or what their structural function might be.(5)
Paul Klee describes the "dynamic relation
between form and qualities of image".(6) It is the imagination
that keeps line, colour, and shape living within the picture plane.
Klee wrote:
Speaking from my own experience, it
depends on the mood of the artist at the time, which of the many
elements are brought out of their general order, out of their
appointed array, to be raised to a new order and form an image
which is normally called 'the subject'.(7)
A line or an area of colour then has the potential
to express a wide range of feelings or ideas. By maintaining an
openness, Ken Kiff, like Paul Klee (and Chagall and Redon) could
endow the surface of the plane with a life force and with knowledge
and ambiguity. In doing so a dialogue is set up between the artist
and the physical components of the picture. Kiff was quick to point
out, however, that by changing a physical element with meaning does
not imply that it is then an idea.(8) While Kiff maintained
a close control over structure he had pointed out "If you are obsessed
with structure, the real structure passes out of sight".(9)
It was not possible in Kiff's view to separate form from emotion.
Perhaps the most direct expression of the artist's personality and
intention is drawing, an artists' personal handwriting, the most
immediate and direct of languages. It is perhaps easier to detect
commitment and feeling for a subject as well and an informed knowledge
of form in drawing. An inert line that merely describes truthfully
in academic manner, for example, can more easily be distinguished
from one that is charged with life.
Pause on a Mountain, (1988) for example
in charcoal and pastel seemed to be initially a sad image. It is
arresting in the moment of thought and recognition captured in the
soft, suggestive media. The man was walking up a hill, Kiff explained
to me, he turned around to see a huge figure. Then the sun appeared.
The drawing is concerned with inner tension - the veins in the man's
neck resemble wild ivy - and with the tension between the two figures.
One experiences an overwhelming sense of nothing. What is the power
of these tiny lines; on the surface they appear tentative but they
have a remarkable capacity to enter one?
Kiff remained a brave artist, one who had
not hesitated to examine his own psyche and his own motivation for
being an artist. It is a rare combination, the physicality of his
pictures, the technical proficiency with the understatement and
generous spirit. Referring to the painting The Poet Vladimir
Mayakovsky Invites the Sun to Tea, (1985-87) Norbert Lynton
said:
It celebrates creativity amid doubt
and despondency - creativity as energy but also as a duty, work
to be done by man as it is the sun's task to shine.(10)
Kiff always showed a consistent ability to sieve
through ideas, to discern between what was important to him and
what was peripheral, to dig out images from the mind and from past
experience but also to endow the pictorial elements with a life
force so that the image emerges naturally, as if by itself.
Ken Kiff died on February 15 2001 aged 65.
FOOTNOTES
(1) Martha Kapos, "Illuminating Images",
Ken Kiff:Paintings 1965-85, Serpentine Gallery, London, Jan-Feb
1986, Arts Council, London, p.35.
(2) Kenn Kiff, quoted by Timothy Hyman, "the
Meeting of Contrasted Elements", Ibid, p.10.
(3) Norbert Lynton, Ken Kiff - New Work,
Fischer Fine Art, London, 19th May-24th June 1988, no pagination.
(4) Ken Kiff, Interviewed by Janet McKenzie,
London, June 1988.
(5) Martha Kapos, op.cit., p.36.
(6) Ibid, p.36.
(7) Paul Klee, On Modern Art, London 1954,
quoted by Martha Kapos, Ibid, p.36.
(8) Ken Kiff, Interviewed by Janet McKenzie,
op.cit..
(9) Ibid.
(10) Norbert Lynton, op.cit., no pagination.
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