11 March - 28 April HELEN BAKER : 'Red Rag' Paintings

"A chess-board pattern of small coloured squares is arranged in a rhythmically varied system of rectangles. Each little square also carries a specific light-producing colour, their combined chromatic gradation creates a coloured light; complementary contrasts and slight discords break and resolve again and thus bring movement to the pattern of the colour harmony; and here and there small areas of flat colour disturb the chess-board pattern." Werner Haftmann's description of Robert Delaunay's lyrical response to light through a Parisian window could almost stand for Helen Baker's recent paintings save that she deals with Roman light and her intentions are philosophical: not less than meditations on the transience of power. Latterly Helen Baker's paintings, derived from a residency at the British School in Rome, have been characterised as quivering "on the verge of their own disintegration". Her deliquescent colour grids act as metaphors for crumbling surfaces, weathered stucco, fading light, all contributing to an aura of "archaeological melancholy". Occasionally, she weaves minatory texts into these correlatives of architectural and political decline but with great subtlety.

Helen Baker Exhibition Catalogue

To view the press release please click here. 

Image: Red Rag, Oil on canvas, 122 x 122 cm, © Helen Baker 

Opening Times:

Kings Place Gallery / Bookshop / Balcony North Gallery:

Monday - Friday 10 am - 6 pm

Saturday - Sunday 12 am - 6 pm

Admission free

GALLERY CLOSED: EASTER BH 22-25 APRIL AND BH 2 MAY

Telephone: 020 7520 1485

Fax: 020 7520 1487

Email: kpg@kingsplace.co.uk