Keith Vaughan (1912-1977)

The present work loosely relates to a series of paintings that Vaughan made for an exhibition at the Marlborough Gallery in 1964. Working at breakneck speed, he produced around sixteen paintings on the theme of physical conflict, many of them depicting the intertwined figures of Laocoön and his sons. The surface of each of these paintings is handled with vigorous brushwork and the application is expressive and gestural. The quality of Vaughan's pigment not only conveys the violence of the subject but also acts as an equivalent of flesh.

G.H.