Red in Tooth & Claw - Esther

Last year, autumn seemed to come early. This year it feels late.

It’s only just started to cool down really & even so, we’ve had some very mild days. When it’s been wet however, the rain has been torrential. You can’t tell me climate change doesn’t exist. Once this happens of course we get fungus – mushrooms & toadstools sprouting everywhere, this year even on city streets on the sides of the pavements, growing through cracks in concrete & sprouting out from the places you’d least expect. The conditions are right & the mushrooms are making the most of it. The rowan berries are a deep, dark red. When you point this out, people round here like to exclaim, “OOH, that means a harsh winter!” Frankly, I’m hoping for this winter to be a little less harsh, as last year’s winter lockdown was grim & depressing. But I have seen a lot of red in the trees & bushes this year in leaves & berries & rosehips. Against the green where green still hangs on to summer, it’s startling & beautiful. & cheering.

Red is a favourite amongst artists too. It has a variety of symbolic meanings & it just looks good. Historically, the making of red for paint or textiles has taken many turns & used several ingredients. Not all reds have been successful, as we shall see…

Cave paintings, hands at Cueva de lost Manos, Argentina & bison at Altamira, Spain

Red ochre. Apparently 250,00 years old in art history terms. & particularly in what is the Netherlands region, where so many great painters have subsequently created their masterpieces. Coincidence? At a mystical level, I’d like to think not, but the materials were of course vastly different. Cinnabar, minium (aka “red lead” with all the poisonous connotations that carries), vermillion, cochineal or carmine, cadmium, naphthol, lithol (more later) have all participated in the historical journey of red. 

Classroom, Will Ryman (2015)

Part of an installation of two rooms, Ryman critiques the concepts of globalisation, mass production, exploitation & consumerism, however colour plays a key role here – via the materials used. For me, the red figure seems most vivid & stands out most clearly. He has used the same features for each figure, but cast them in different substances, such as wood, gold, titanium, silicon. He found that colour apart, the properties of the assorted materials altered the features in their own way.

Lucca Madonna, Jan van Eyck (1437)

Elizabeth I when a Princess (1533-1603), William Scrots (1546-7)

Saint Jerome as a Scholar, El Greco (c. 1610)

Red has many symbolic meanings, several of them seemingly at odds. Both the blood of Christ & the power of monarchy are represented by red. Revolutionaries have used it to iconic effect & it has been appropriated to state a god-given right to rule.

Skinny Rib, Shani Rhys James (2012)

Red flock wallpaper has a number of associations such as pubs, hotels & brothels, however it’s also very old fashioned & I like the juxtaposition between that traditional element & James’s very modern self portrait. She uses lots of red in her paintings generally which lends them an impressively oppressive, claustrophobic vibe.

The Red Boy or Master Lambton, Sir Thomas Lawrence (1825)

If you think there is no end to the popularity of sentimental paintings in the 19th Century, you’d be right but in fairness poor little Charles William Lambton died of tuberculosis at just 13. Somewhat unsentimentally, his portrait was put up for sale to help pay for the colossal death duties incurred later by his father’s later passing. It remained unsold at the time & now resides in the National Gallery in London who bought it for 9.3 million GBP. But, come on now, that red velvet is beautifully rendered...

Untitled (Red, Orange), Mark Rothko (1968)

I actively dislike Rothko’s work – it makes me see red - but his image is so bound up in colour that it seems churlish not to give him a mention. That lithol we mentioned earlier? It was the undoing of some of Rothko’s work. I’ve found that in many decades of dyeing my hair, that red pigment fades more quickly than others &, like carmine, is very light sensitive. So it was that some of Rothko’s paintings had to be removed from view, so badly damaged were they by light. They had turned pale blue. All thanks to the unstable qualities of the lithol used in the works. I won’t comment on that further but carmine has also been used as a glaze to disastrous effect by illustrious artists such as Joshua Reynolds.

Little Electric Chair, Andy Warhol (1964)

It says blood & death even without the red. With it, it’s brutal.

The Dessert: Harmony in Red, Henri Matisse (1908)

We can clearly see some of Matisse’s influences in this piece – van Gogh & Japanese art – but this was originally going to be a blue painting. He painted over it in red & at the risk of telling a great artist how to do his job, I for one am convinced he made the right decision.

Coloured Still Life, Patrick Caulfield (1967)

Sometimes the red is most effective when it’s up against something else. The contrast of the deep blue makes the red jump out at the viewer. Bold, flat & graphic, his works are figurative but ambiguously lean towards the surreal. He was a master of striking & often strident colour. 

La Chambre Rouge, Félix Vallaton (1898)

Vallaton’s red room has a Colourist feel in terms of flat planes of colour & a focus on still life. It nevertheless has a feeling of depth & a clear narrative intent – less of a Colourist trait. Here the red is oppressive & possibly dangerous. Although his style has been described as “unemotional,” a great deal of tension exists in many of his works, partly due to the buttoned-up nature of his images.

The Box With the Golden Mask, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec (1894)

I do associate this sumptuous red with the theatre & at first this lithograph appears to be a typical theatre scene. But that mask on the front of the box is an oddity & we are invited to wonder who is the real grotesque here, haha.

Cabra, Jean-Michel Basquiat (1981-2)

Basquiat’s style makes every work a highly charged image & skulls with all their connotations are always relevant. Coupled with the vibrant red, it’s easy to see the associations with a legendary boxing match; the boxing ring, signs of Ali’s victory against Oscar “The Bull” Bonavena & the bull imagery are all there. The title, “Cabra” means “goat,” as an acronym popularly meaning Greatest of All Time. There is still a great deal of prejudice & snobbery over Basquiat & his work. It’s satisfying to consider this work as a triumph over racial persecution & tedious art world condescension.