Selected works

Many historical references can be found in the painting of Simon Edmondson (London, 1955) . His works are enriched by the collective memory of recent historical events which have changed our perception of life and art. The repetition of human conflict studied as a constant and tragic truth amongst which we adapt to live.

This exhibition gathers a selection of key works from a period of 24 years and in which it is possible to appreciate the development of ideas behind the works of Edmondson. The six rooms are ordered thematically rather than chronologically and emphasize recurring themes to which the painter has been compelled to return time and again. Shifting influences, technical advances and changing ideas, have affected the handling possibilities of a seemingly infinite body of work.

Extracts from key poetic sources and the painter's own notes are included to orientate the viewer and describe the essence of each group of works.

Norbert Lynton wrote, (catalogue introduction 1996)

Edmondson's physically coherent images re-assert something easily lost sight of amid the technical restlessness of recent and contemporary art that painting is an immensely powerful, infinitely adaptable medium, capable of intense communication precisely when it confines itself to one material dimension and thus addresses itself to our capacity for empathetic understanding on a particular level of experience.