KENNY SCHACHTER ROVE Britannia Street
BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE
THE STONE IN ART

Curated by
DANNY MOYNIHAN
Private view Tuesday 20 June, 6-8pm. Show continues to 26 August

Richard Long, Damien Hirst, André Derain, Olafur Eliasson, Lee Maelzer, Tamsin Morse, Eugéne Delacroix, Gustave Courbet, Hirano Gogaku, Bryan Wynter, Keith Tyson, Edward William Cooke, R.A., F.R.S., Thomas Daniell R.A. and William Daniell R.A., Tristram Hillier, Yunoki Gyokuson, Bill Brandt, David Hockney, John Piper, James Ward, R.A., Nick Waplington, Paul Thek, David Parker, Lan Ying, Friedrich Nerly, Stephen Vaughan, Darren Almond, Jannis Kounellis, Rupert Norfolk, Peter Beard, Roger Fenton, Jonathan Wateridge, Tomioka Tessai, Koen van den Broek, Barry Flanagan, Lucas Van Valckenborch, Mariana Cook, Lucien Hervé

Since our time on earth began, we have had a strong affiliation with rocks and stones. We have dwelt within them, carved upon them, marked tombs with them, dragged them up mountains, worshipped with them, and ascribed power to them. Many people today look for stones of special beauty, aborigines believe their ‘sacred stones’ contain spirits of the dead, Hindus pass special stones from father to son believed to have magical powers, the holiest sanctuary of Islam is the Ka’aba, the black stone in Mecca, Christ is the ‘spiritual rock’ (1Cor. X:4), alchemists seek the ‘philosopher’s stone’, something that can never be lost or dissolved. The eternal quality of stones and rocks means they have come to symbolise the core of the self - complete, unchanging, lasting. It is as if stones contain a living mystery for us. A stone symbolises the deepest and simplest human experience, something so appealing because it is unchanging and unalterable. It is this seemingly static nature of rocks, which form part of a timeless structure that pins the world together – and yet all the while the wind and the weather and the passage of time rub strange and beautiful imprints on each and every necessarily unique rocky surface.

In ‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place’, Danny Moynihan collates eastern and western representations of stones in art from the Renaissance to the modern day in homage to this sepulchral sombre ancient magical matter of rock and stone. These art works operate in the same way perhaps that ancient Chinese scholar stones conjure a valuable metaphor for the viewer. These scholar stones would be chosen because they represented a landscape, they would be brought from the exterior realm of nature into the interior realm as analogies of that exterior. Thus they were tools for the imagination to meditate, a path for the mind to connect inner with outer, micro with macro, the self with the world.

These works are a testament to the uncanny pull of rocks, the stillness, the divinity, the allure. These rocks and stones represent our landscape, the exterior matter against which we define ourselves and each art work opens up a dialogue between man and his world, artist and landscape, object and representation of object.

For press images or further information please contact:

Simon Parris +44 (0)7789 348 584 / simon@rovetv.net

 

LIST OF WORKS

Peter Beard
Ken Hiratsuku. Montauk, August 2004
Eight silver gelatin prints with watercolour ink
Includes DVD
Unique
66.3 x 89.7cm

Barry Flanagan
Thinker at Rock Cross 1997
Bronze, cast 1 from an edition of 8
155 x 140 x 120cm
481.5 kg / 1059 Ibs

Lee Maelzer
Dry Land 2006
Oil on canvas
244 x 170.3cm

Stephen Vaughan
Untitled, from Ultima Thule, 2006
C-type print
48 x 60 inches
Edition 1/10

Olafur Eliasson
Untitled 2002
Two cibachrome prints mounted in a double sided
frame, signed and numbered from an edition of 42 in ink on
plaque on base of frame, framed and glazed.
31 x 47cm

Koen van den Broek
Waterfall 2005
Silkscreen on paper
29.5 x 43 5/16 inches

Andre Derain (1880-1954)
Foret de Fontainbleau – Les rochers, ca 1945
Huile sur toile
50 x 61 cm

Nick Waplington
Rock Pool No.1, 2004
C-Print
AP 1 of 2

A tall Chinese Scholar’s rock (Ying Stone)
87 x 36 x 9 cm

Friedrich Nerly (1807 – 1878)
Dry riverbed in Switzerland
Oil on Canvas
84 x 67 cm

Roger Fenton
The Falls of Sodore, c.1858
Albumen print

Circle of Adrian Zingg (1734-1816)
Grotto
Pen and brown ink with brown wash
36.5 x 30 cm

James Ward R.A.
Untitled
Oil on panel
40 x 36 cm

Darren Almond
Fullmoon at Gordale Scar 2005
C-type print
47 11/16 x 47 11/16 inches

Gustave Courbet
Paysage de la region D’orn 1872
Oil on canvas
51 x 41 cm

James McDonald
Two photographs of the Sinai Desert c.1868
Albumen prints
53 x 43 cm each (framed)

Chinese Dream Stone Panel
Sunset above Autumn Mountain
Inscribed by Ruan Yuan (1764-1849)
A transverse slice of Ta-li marble with hardwood frame and stand
19th Century
Wood & marble
53 x 42 x 6 cm

Eugene Delacroix
Les Naufrages (The shipwrecked) 1861
Oil on canvas
59.5 x 52 cm

Anonymous
Rock study, 19th Century
Oil on panel
56 x 39 cm

Chinese Scholar’s Rock (Seated figure)
52 x 41 x 21 cm

Bryan Wynter (1915-1975)
Rockpile 1947
Watercolour & gouache
9.5 x 19.25 in / 24 x 48.5cm

David Parker
Siren XIV
Toned silver gelatin print
172 x 101.5 cm
Edition 9/10

Chinese Scholar’s Rock (Lingbi stone)
54 x 52 x 31 cm

Lucien Hervé
Les Constructeurs portfolio
Ten silver gelatin prints
12 x 16 inches each

John Piper
Trellyfant 1978
Watercolour, ink, gouache and chalk
23 x 15.5 inches

Constantin Brancusi
View of the studio 'Sleeping child and newborn 11' c.1921
Vintage silver gelatin print
6.5 x 9.5 inches

Rupert Norfolk
Stone 2005
Jesmonite and Sandstone dust, cast from limestone carving
AP 2/10 (Edition of 60 with 10 APs)
Commissioned for the ZOO portfolio, published in conjunction with Archeus
9 x 13 x 6 cm

David Hockney
Rocks – Nevada, 1968
Lithograph
25.5 x 19.75 inches
Edition of 95 printed by Atelier Desjobert, Paris
Published by Petersburg Press, London

Lan Ying (Chinese, 1585 – c.1664)
Scroll painting of a stone
22.5 x 72.5 inches

Danny Moynihan
Rock, February 2003
Oil on canvas
38 x 46cm

Danny Moynihan
Rock, 2004
Oil on canvas
50 x 61 cm

Danny Moynihan
Rock, 2002
Oil on canvas
30 x 30 cm

Danny Moynihan
Rock, February 2003
Oil on canvas
38 x 46 cm

Danny Moynihan
Rock, March 2004
Oil on canvas
38 x 46 cm

Winged Chinese Scholar’s rock
60 x 44 x 8 cm

Danny Moynihan
Rock, March 2004
Oil on canvas
38 x 46 cm

Damien Hirst
Creation Explored, Explained and Exploded, 2003
Wooden Cabinet, glass, rocks and minerals
67 x 110 x 13 inches

Richard Long
Norfolk Ellipse 2003
Flint and Chalk
710 x 350 cm

Mariana Cook
‘Thirteenth Century Medieval Wall’ Roystone
Grange White Peak, England, 14 May 2004

Silver Gelatin Print
112 x 119 cm framed
Edition of 6 with 3 APs

Japanese spiritual Tortoise Stone
Titled Kamikameishi literally meaning god tortoise stone.
This chance creation of nature has been revered in Japan
where the tortoise is a symbol of longevity.

Bill Brandt
The Devil’s Den, Stonehenge
Print from 1930
Silver gelatin print
Image 23 x 19.7cm paper 25.5 x 20.4cm

Thomas Daniell R.A. and William Daniell R.A. (1749-1840 & 1769-1837)
The Koh Valley in Garhwal, Northern India
Oil on canvas
23.5 x 17 ¾ inches

Hirano Gogaku
Lone Fishing in the Cold River
1809 -1893
Ink and Colour on Silk

Jonathan Wateridge
Study for Misty Landscape with Wreckage 2005
Oil on layered perspex
103 x 77 x 15cm

Paul Thek
Untitled, two people on a rock 1973
49 x 49.5 cm

Lucas Van Valckenborch
An extensive mountain landscape with figures before an iron foundry
Oil on copper
7.5 inches x 11.75 inches

Tristram Hillier (1905 -1983)
Rocky Outcrop
Oil on Panel
26.5 x 21cm

Tamsin Morse
Hostage 2006
Oil on Canvas
41 x 41cm

Keith Tyson
From the Rocks of the Earth, 2004
Aluminium
19 x 24 x 24 & 23 x 24 x

Jannis Kounellis
Untitled (Chair with fabric and rock) 2006
Wooden chair, fabric, rock
84cm H x 42cm W x 50cm L

Edward William Cooke, R.A., F.R.S. (1811-1880)
Steeple Rock, Kynance Cove, Lizard, Cornwall, low water. 1873
Oil on canvas
35.5 x 54.75 inches

Meteorite
Found in America