British Council Collection
UNTITLED 1992
Marcus Taylor (1964 – )
Details
- Dimension
- 85.7 X 70.5 CM
- Media
- SCREENPRINT
- Accession number
- P6073
Summary
The mystery of inner space within familiar objects is a theme explored in the work of Marcus Taylor. He makes sculptures in Perspex, taking domestic appliances such as refrigerators and freezers as his starting point. The outer surfaces are sanded to opacity, making the enclosed volumes intriguingly cloudy, filled with icy potential. The sense of the familiar is removed, and the constructions take on an enigmatic quality; not entirely solid or hard edged, their inaccessible volumetric interiors are occupied by the imagination. The print is a photographic image of an acrylic carving of an electric plug.
This work comes from the London portfolio, one of the most significant British print publications of the 1990s. .
Further reading:
Multiple Choice: Prints by Young British Artists, The British Council 1997
Contemporary British Arts in Print, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and The Paragon Press, 1995 (texts by Jeremy Lewison, Patrick Elliott and Duncan Macmillan)
Glossary
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Acrylic
Modern synthetic paint that combines some of the properties of oils and watercolour. Most are water-based, although some are oil compatible, using turpentine as a thinner. When it became available to artists in America around 1936 it was the first new painting medium in centuries and has become a serious rival to oil paint because of its versatility. Acrylic paints can be used on nearly any surface. The water-based nature of acrylic paint allows for easy application and rapid drying time: acrylic paint dries in a matter of minutes, as opposed to the many months required for oil-based paints. Once the paint has been applied to a surface, the water evaporates, leaving behind the synthetic resin (and pigment), which is no longer water-soluble. Visually, acrylic-based paints can appear to be very similar to oil-based paints, but they cannot rival the rich, translucent nature of oils.
