Under Baldwin’s Influence: Understanding the Painter and his Process

Known for his multifaceted and ethereal work, British artist Dan Baldwin is among the most celebrated contemporary artists working in the UK today. Not only is his estimable talent respected by his contemporaries, his collectors include Damien Hirst, Gilbert & George and Sir Peter Blake. This month, Baldwin unveils his fifteenth solo show, UNDER THE INFLUENCE, at Maddox Gallery, Mayfair. The astounding compilation of mixed media paintings serves as a contemplative narrative of the past ten years of the artist’s life. Provocative and painterly, the multidimensional portraits cleverly juxtapose political, religious and cultural motifs in a manner that is simultaneously frolicsome and somber. Such masterful layering creates an engaging experience for the viewer that is not only visual, but visceral.

Contemporaneous with UNDER THE INFLUENCE at Maddox Gallery, Baldwin is unveiling a ten year mini retrospective of twenty-four silkscreen prints, titled HUMAN at The Saatchi Gallery this month. Amidst preparing for such colossal showcases, the artist spoke with After Nyne on the range of his influences and evolution within his creative expression.

This present exhibition, Under the Influence, is a contemplation of the past ten years of your life. Is there any particular occurrence or circumstance within the past ten years that resonates more strongly in your present body of work?

A lot is to do with childhood issues, and present themes. A piece like To The Forest or I Will Take You, or Escape, they work with personal memory, but are open to current events.

Would you consider Under the Influence to be an abstracted retrospective?

Simultaneously to this, is a mini print retrospective at the Saatchi Gallery, of 24 silkscreens from 2007 until 2016, so yes, i’m feeling a bit nostalgic. It’s my 15th solo show. I’ve really enjoyed making it, it was a very intense year. I think I’ve let go of a lot of personal issues and have realised I just am happy when I paint.

As this exhibition draws from your past, to create a contemporary compilation of work, would you argue that cultural progress is dependent on reflections of yesteryear?

We always must look back to be reminded, as a means of perspective, possibly, or as a reference but also look forward to the dark world we live in. Current issues creep into my art as I can’t help but allow those ideas into the work. But I look back as an innocent child would. Like when I made collages cutting up the National Geographic as a teenager, it’s using what you have around you, but it’s how you use it and what you want to say.

The images are at times provocative and jarring, yet playful and engaging. What role do balance and harmony play in the thematic significance of your work?

EVERYTHING is balance and harmony - every colour, every element. It’s never accidental. It’s been 26 years to this show. Painting is emotion, I aim for a perfect rhythm in each piece, like composing a piece of music, it all has to be in harmony, even if the themes are opposing.

Part of your style is in layering mediums and building on top of what already exists. How loosely, or closely attached to your works are you?

Very. I live with them. It’s our entire world. So you do get attached to each piece and that may sound pretentious but its honest. Each stage of the painting makes sense whilst you’re doing it, you may hate it, but you have to try things, ideas, it may work, it may look terrible, but instinct is all you have, and this is a process of getting to the finished piece.

Is there any particular piece within this repertoire that was most difficult to detach from in the process of creation?

Autoflow went on for 18 months. The depth in layering is almost 10mm deep. I love that piece. But it was a hard one to complete. I document each layer. This show is one year of my life, with two weeks holiday, one in Los Angeles, one in Majorca, this is the rest of the year. I reworked and reworked the painting Snakes and Relics, until it became a pot painting, it started as one giant pot painting, as I stopped painting on real ceramics for this show, then it went on a multitude of stages with horses and forests and cars and then became painted over to this relic painting. It’s a bizarre piece but I like that one a lot. The difficult Yves Klein blue, I love the feel of it.

Can you foresee in which ways the present socio-political climate (U.S. elections and Brexit) may impact future works? (In example, a retrospective that you may have in ten years.)

I’ve noticed a new simplicity in contemporary painting, i’ve noticed a shift, people want a bit more love. I'm an environmentalist, I just get depressed with political climate as we seem to be going backwards, so I paint to create a new simplicity. It makes me happy. The world is dark, it’s too depressing. But all my last ten years of paintings have been dark, crucifixions, and Iraqi money, real bullets, Hitler, and US politics, and a cross pollination, just like Rauschenberg and Warhol did in their time, artists just react to their current climate. I made a film last year, out of 10,000 still images. Times are changing fast with instant technology, video clips and the speed of Internet. On a gallery structure, the art world model is changing. I can only reflect on what I’m making, and that is all depending on my mood as I make it, cultural news and political issues & themes enter the studio, barb wire, conflict, borders, migration etc. as I’m spontaneous and moody, my art reflects what’s going on.

What aspects of contemporary culture and its virtues/madness are represented within the beauty and vibrancy of Under the Influence?

It depends on the works, some of the works on paper are kind of like flicking through the TV, Hot Beef and Duck, and Acid Reflux are more like a release of lots of themes, with the brain scan and the MOM and the ice cream and the beef and the duck. Coffins and bubblegum and tank, then some paintings are warmer in colour and feel Los Angeles inspired. It’s more an escape to the hills. In To The Forest I was thinking about a day in the Greenwich Observatory (in Los Angeles) where they filmed Rebel Without a Cause. You walk down the track through a forest to a park. It’s iconic. Or a walk in Central Park, it has a dark history, a creepy energy. I like forests. I was almost abducted a child, so I was also aware of memories, and parenthood. I have a six-year-old son; life is dark and light. I used to paint forests for the same tension, dark and light, creepy and yet beautiful, like little red riding hood themes. The Hunter, I was thinking about migration, or the feeling of dawn, so there’s just a figure with an axe, and a skeleton of a cockerel, the hunter gatherer male figure and it just felt like something from another time, in a more simple place. I want them to be atmospheric. Ignite has a totem pole, and other religious references, but it’s all disguised in a mad flurry of nature. It is the last in the series of 21 works, and I think you can tell.. I wanted to up the contrast heavily in this show, with the palette.

What is the legacy that you hope will remain from this show?

I just really hope people like this work like I do. I am happy with every piece, I enjoy what I do, and then I let go of it and start again. When I paint, to quote Picasso I feel happy (and young) and it all makes sense.

Dan Baldwin, Under The Influence

5th - 25th October

Maddox Gallery, 9 Maddox Street,

London W1S 2QE.

www.maddoxgallery.co.uk

@maddoxgallery