Frottages, 1979

                        Simpson began experimenting with frottage in 1971 and 1972 in London and Paris. these works are now
                        collected in a book, Disquieting Day in an Underground Forest (Condition West, North Vancouver, 1999)
                        This exhibition contains several series of frottages in charcoal, beginning in 1979. These works
                         utilized objects found around the artist's studio which were then developed into finished compositions.


 Germinal Landscape,14" x 16.5", 1978

 


Breaking Point
14" x 16.5", 1978



Crevasse
14" x 16.5", 1978


Midnight Sun
14" x 16.5", 1978

                                        The technique known as frottage (or rubbing in French) is an elaboration of the game of  placing
                                         paper over a coin and rubbing with a pencil on it to obtain an impression.  The rubbing of temple
                                         friezes is likewise a common practice.  In the hands of surrealist pioneer, Max Ernst, however frottage
                                        became the basis of a lifelong pursuit of hallucinatory or divinatory images drawn forth from natural
                                        surfaces such as wood, leaves, and other textures as in his famous 1926 series Histoires Naturelles.

                                        Simpson is one of the few contemporary artists to have explored new ground with this graphic technique.
                                        From 1971 to 1979 he produced several series of compositions in charcoal or graphite that utilized frottage.
                                        Since then he has used the technique as the point of departure in several series of charcoal drawings.
                                        In 1999, the artist produced Disquieting Day in an Underground Forest. a book of his 1970's frottages
                                        done mainly in London, Paris and Morocco during the early 1970's.
 
Works on Paper

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