For the past two years David Haines has been developing a body of new work that ties itself to the gravity of painting within the context of the new information age and digitally overloaded image culture. Invested in the history of European painting, Haines has arrived at a language for painting, which not only speaks to the ancestor spirits of Holbein, Hals, Vermeer, but is also fully grounded in today’s image driven and technological consumer society.
The paintings follow the logic of representation where the human condition is negotiated and transacted through the LCD screen. This screen is formed not only of the dark reflecting glass of a smartphone, but of paper, canvas, paint and graphite. The influence of the screen within the history of classical art roams freely here, screens that reveal images and conceal their making, screens which shimmer with patchworks of sumptuous brushwork and glazed oil filled surfaces that reflect. The painting is a skin. The painting is a screen. The painting glows….
Una Henry 2020
