DEREK DUNLOP: "Thoughts and Non-Thoughts" Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, Brandon, Sept. 26 to Nov. 16, 2013

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"Untitled"

Derek Dunlop, "Untitled," 2012, oil and acrylic on canvas, 24” x 24”.

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"Untitled"

Derek Dunlop, "Untitled," 2013, oil and acrylic on canvas, 34” x 28”.

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"Untitled"

Derek Dunlop, "Untitled," 2012, oil and acrylic on canvas, 24” x 24”.

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"Thoughts and Non-Thoughts"

Derek Dunlop, "Thoughts and Non-Thoughts," 2013, installation view.

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DEREK DUNLOP: Thoughts and Non-Thoughts

Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, Brandon

Sept. 26 to Nov. 16, 2013

By Sarah Swan

Derek Dunlop’s new work will appeal to those who like their art served cool, as an antidote to the fevered pace of modern life.

When viewed from a distance, his oil and acrylic paintings of squares, lines and simple patterns emanate a sense of calm. There are a lot of whites, subtle pastels and soft greys. Several untitled paintings of squares have a barely perceptible glow, their blurred edges seeming to lift off the canvas. Other untitled works contain evenly spaced rows of ribbon-thin lines, positioned horizontally, vertically or diagonally across a muted background.

Dunlop’s abstractions are a conversation between naive discovery and methodical technique. But he’s at his best when he barely touches the canvas. When his hand is light, it allows the work’s slim materiality to breathe. Take, for example, his most recent untitled pieces. Dunlop layered white paint over strips of tape before pulling the tape away to reveal the subtle coloration below. Other canvases bear more weight. In systematic (pink) and systematic II, the artist used a stenciled insignia to build dense pattern.  

In both heavy and light treatments, it’s easy to see the procedural flaws purposefully retained by the artist. There are places where paint has bled under the tape or squished outside the stencil’s edge. These anomalies lend peculiar warmth to the work. It’s almost as though Dunlop’s real interest is how his methodical approach to painting must, at a certain point, break down. His patterns take on personality, each shape or line bearing its own characteristics. If his systems are an attempt to confine the turbulence and anxiety inherent in other styles of abstraction, they fail. But, they fail beautifully. Calm and cool from a distance, up close they are nearly expressionistic.

In a group show, Reconfiguring Abstraction, at the Manitoba School of Art Gallery last year, Dunlop’s work was notable for its focus on pure materiality. But his work is about more than paint itself. In fact, some of his stencils are derived from military rank insignia and badges from Nazi concentration camps. The badges’ inverted triangle shapes designated people as so-called asocial elements, namely gay men, prostitutes and gypsies. Dunlop has effectively painted over them in an act of historical erasure. 

The pieces in Thoughts and Non-Thoughts can also be appreciated as a continuation of conversations started by 1960’s minimalism. Some paintings refer to the delicacy of Agnes Martin, some to the materiality and palette of Robert Ryman. In a few, there’s even something of Eva Hesse. Like Dunlop, Hesse acknowledged that making serial art wasn’t, for the most part, rational. Both artists’ invented systems seem entirely negotiable.

But even those with little knowledge of art history can understand Dunlop’s work on a visceral level. The paintings have a hush that gives the viewer contemplative space.