Frottages 1971-1995
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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 the 1970's frottages done mainly in London, Paris and Morocco. In August 2000 a retrospective of the artist's frottages and other drawings from 1978-1999 was held at the Salle du Couvemt in Seillans, France.
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