KILLEEN, Richard, 1946-
Man, Window and Awning (Painting)
Teaching him at the Elam School of Fine Arts, Colin McCahon noticed that
Richard Killeen’s compositions seemed assembled from separate parts, like
jigsaw puzzle pieces. This one even takes its title from the three significant
features in it, and orders them in a descending hierarchy of importance.
Richard’s subject matter is both realistic and abstract, and his work allows a
reading of both modes. Yet if painting in the Realist tradition was once
considered a window onto the world, Richard is showing in this work that
the opening is now closed. His stylised figure has become a flattened shape
pasted over the background, casting little shadow. Is the Realist mode just
the alibi for the investigation of figure and field with image and pattern, or
does narrative linger on?