L’IMPRESSION D’ANARCHIE

Whilst echoing American Abstract Expressionism in gesture and energy, McDowell’s praxis, nonetheless, resists flatness. The works in this way appear to be at the crossroads between History of Art and Contemporary practice, illustrative of their author’s composite inspiration. While emerging from the artist’s original cosmos, the works carry the mark of past practices and timeless conversations. The clear impressionist and pre-impressionist influence is perceived not only through the brushstrokes and vivid colours, but also in the works’ titles.

In that regard, three works in the exhibition are contemporary transcriptions of Cézanne paintings, while the exhibition’s title nods to the political leanings of Pissarro—an anarchist who found inspiration in the everyday. For instance, an elliptical work in the show, Bon Voyage, takes its name from Monet’s favorite painting in the Louvre, Watteau’s Voyage to Cythera. And as Monet, Watteau, and others seem to whisper incantations behind closed doors, McDowell paints largely with his hands, spreading and smearing pigment across handmade wooden panels. Like Pissarro and Monet, McDowell pursues his own vision of utopia. In 2018, he left London, and the UK entirely, for the hills above Rome, where he established a studio and artist residency, surrounded by the very landscapes that offered Art History some of its most recognisable scenes, from Corot to Poussin.

In this sense, nourished by the springs and s(p)oils of History, the works presented here were either painted in Rome or in the Roman countryside, shifting between Bernini's urban grandeur, and the classical idyllic depictions of Lazio’s nature. McDowell’s plein air practice and adaptability, mixed with his clear appreciation of the past Masters generate little metaphors of Life and Nature. Each piece opens into space, where light, shadow, and form emerge through tension. His work exists between eras, grounded in tradition yet wholly of the present. This exhibition merges the contemporary with the classical; modern in language, timeless in theme.