Ian McGowan
In late 2020 Ian McGowan exhibited at Mangawhai Artists Gallery.
Just as Level Four, Covid 19 lockdown occurred in the March, Ian McGowan was getting ready to produce paintings for an exhibition at Mangawhai Artists Gallery. He had spent many months drawing from some great shows in ACAG, between 2017 - 2019.
He had interpreted Picasso and other 20th century artists in his drawings, and some of the figures had masks on. Picasso often used African masks for facial imagery. Ian had read that Cubism began as an idea in Picasso’s mind, when, as a child, he witnessed priests carrying out an exorcism by scattering Indulgence Cards to ward off a plague that threatened the populace of Picasso’s home town. The priest’s cut the cards up with scissors, and the pieces were thrown down in front of their churches. The random patterns of the cut segments left an image Picasso adapted to form Cubism years later. Whether that story is true or not, Ian made a connection between Picasso’s experience of a plague and Covid 19, and so the virus became the subject of his exhibition.
Contact Ian at kopu.ianmcgowan@gmail.com
Just as Level Four, Covid 19 lockdown occurred in the March, Ian McGowan was getting ready to produce paintings for an exhibition at Mangawhai Artists Gallery. He had spent many months drawing from some great shows in ACAG, between 2017 - 2019.
He had interpreted Picasso and other 20th century artists in his drawings, and some of the figures had masks on. Picasso often used African masks for facial imagery. Ian had read that Cubism began as an idea in Picasso’s mind, when, as a child, he witnessed priests carrying out an exorcism by scattering Indulgence Cards to ward off a plague that threatened the populace of Picasso’s home town. The priest’s cut the cards up with scissors, and the pieces were thrown down in front of their churches. The random patterns of the cut segments left an image Picasso adapted to form Cubism years later. Whether that story is true or not, Ian made a connection between Picasso’s experience of a plague and Covid 19, and so the virus became the subject of his exhibition.
Contact Ian at kopu.ianmcgowan@gmail.com
