John Robinson 'CNUT'

John Robinson’s technical prowess could be
seen to be shared with the pantheon of
great masters of the 17th and 18th centuries
including artists such as Diego Velazquez
and Francisco Goya with a developing focus
on self portraiture adopted by the likes of
Rembrandt Van Rijn or more recently Frida
Kahlo. However Robinson’s figurative yet often
absurd works offer a contemporary subversion
of the rich tradition of self portraiture.
Robinson’s process often involves private
performance, seasoned with personal, cultural
and socio-political symbolism, which is
recorded in the shed in his garden, then a still
is taken from the video of these actions, which
is then developed and exquisitely rendered,
usually in oil paint on canvas. The final process
imbues the subject with an intangible emotive
quality that only the gesture of painting can
imply, made all the more remarkable by the
fact that perhaps only two or three colours
are dexterously used to create his vision. For
Robinson these paintings embrace personal
concern, disclosure and catharsis, for the
voyeur the experience appears both elaborately
grandiose and awkwardly revealing.
It is widely accepted that the function and
aim of a portrait, be it of other or of self, is
to reveal or expose often elusive aspects of
the subject. The notion of ‘exposure’ in these
paintings, is notably ambiguous and
psychologically complex, embodying a duality
that represents both continuity and departure
from the great tradition. This duality is well
highlighted by Fernando Pessoa who once wrote
“Masquerades disclose the reality of souls.
As long as no one sees who we are, we can
tell the most intimate details of our life. I
sometimes muse over this sketch of a story
about a man afflicted by one of those personal
tragedies born of extreme shyness who one
day, while wearing a mask I don’t know where,
told another mask all the most personal, most
secret, most unthinkable things that could
be told about his tragic and serene life. And
since no outward detail would give him away,
he having disguised even his voice, and since
he didn’t take careful note of whoever had
listened to him, he could enjoy the ample
sensation of knowing that somewhere in the
world there was someone who knew him as not
even his closest and finest friend did. When he
walked down the street he would ask himself
if this person, or that one, or that person over
there might not be the one to whom he’d once,
wearing a mask, told his most private life. Thus
would be born in him a new interest in each
person, since each person might be his only,
unknown confidant.”
As Picasso once stated, to be often re-quoted,
‘Art is a lie that makes us realize truth’- a
mask worn provides the protection so that the
truth can then be told perhaps. So what is the
truth? Who are we? We live in a ‘selfie’ ravaged
world of hide and seek, where the ubiquitous
manipulated self represented image fills the
cloud and airwaves. A world contorting a pout
to the mirror which is turned for each and
everyone to see. Is this what a vision of self
looks like? Friedrich Nietzsche wrote “One’s
own self is well hidden from one’s own self;
of all mines of treasure, one’s own is the last
to be dug up.” So who is John Robinson?
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