Edward Povey British, b. 1951
76.2 x 71.1 cm
The sepia photographs were from Povey’s grandparents, and were scanned, re-printed, repeatedly folded and aged to look like the originals. Whilst Povey decries prescriptive art as kindergarten literature, we still might assume that the sepia photographs symbolise the cast of characters that stand in an ever expanding pyramid behind each human being. The use of old family photographs had appeared in Povey’s paintings as far back as 2003, and continues as a useful window on past generations of which Povey is very aware, being the seventh Edward Povey in line. Also, Edward has always liked to depict paper and card in paintings, with its delicate edges and folds touched with light.
The chair was created similarly to the photographs before being included in the complete stage set, mirroring the design of the painting. The set now required to be photographed and rebuilt into a cubist photomontage from which Povey worked.
Apparently the apples were an afterthought, but he regarded them as essential to balance the organisation of colour in the painting.
He is particularly happy with the strange and unexplained posture of the figure, almost suggesting a blessing, or the intimation of having intentionally discarded some unwanted ancestors from his lineage.
Literature
Edward Povey
BIOGRAPHY
Edward Povey was born in 1951 in London, England, growing up as an only child, painting obsessively and writing prose and music. He studied drawing at Eastbourne College for Art and Design, and then psychology and painting at The University of Wales. He became known as a mural painter in his twenties and was followed by the BBC through the making of 25 murals up to six stories in height, a period that he later came to regard as his apprenticeship.
He moved his studio to the Caribbean island of Grenada to concentrate on deepening his canvas painting for seven years, and his works began finding their way into private collections in the United States. At this time he studied colour and composition with established artists such as the Danish architectural abstractionist Paul Klose, the American colourist Malcolm T. Liepke, and the Belgian art dealer Jan de Maere. By 1991 he was showing in John Whitney Payson’s New York gallery beside 20th Century American masters, and in other galleries in seven countries over the coming three decades.
In 1991 The University of Wales commissioned Edward Povey to create a major 20 X 40 foot painting for a chamber concert hall in Wales, for which he designed a dense narrative work comprising seven panels framed by trompe-l'œil stonework.
By the year 2000 Povey works were being acquired by The National Museum of Wales; MOMA Wales; the National Library of Wales; the Glynn Vivien Art Museum; the Anglesey Museum Art Collection and numerous corporate art collections, and in 2018 The British Library documented his career for the British nation.
Edward Povey was unusually sensitive and empathic as a child and was prone to fainting. His life took him through three marriages and two wars, in Israel and the Caribbean, thus it is no coincidence that he was preoccupied with the human experience, following a clear arc through his paintings, from perspectives on society in his 1970s’ murals, through family psychology and symbolism in his works of the 1990s, and culminating with insights into individual human vulnerability and mortality in his current paintings.
He lives and works in Devon, England, and still devotes up to a hundred hours a week to his work.