![[71551] Edinburgh : Gallery of Modern Art - Self Portrait in the Sculpture Studio at Peckham](https://www.customketodieofficial.datawarehousecenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/46229743994_eb9c57214b.jpg)
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Belford Road, Edinburgh.
Self Portrait in the Sculpture Studio at Peckham (after Gerolamo Mocetto).
Raqib Shaw (b1974).
Acrylic liner and enamel on birch wood, 2015-16.
Exhibition 19 May to 28 October 2018.
Raqib Shaw.
Reinventing the Old Masters.
Eight works by the Indian-born, London-based artist, whose remarkable, intricate paintings are often inspired by works by the Old Masters. Here, they are shown along with two paintings, Paton’s The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania and Cranach’s An Allegory of Melancholy.
The architectural elements in Shaw’s painting derive from Gerolamo Mocetto’s The Massacre of the Innocents, c.1500-25 (National Gallery, London). Shaw has turned it into a sculpture studio, filling it with his own artworks, tools and source material. The bronzes in the foreground are actual sculptures made by Shaw. Books on the sculptors Giambologna and Rodin lie on the floor. The artist is standing, partly hidden behind a column. Some of the busts placed high up in niches are based on friends and studio assistants; others represent famous sculptors. In the distance, we glimpse The Shard, the London skyscraper which can be seen from Shaw’s studio.
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Raqib Shaw is one of the most extraordinary and celebrated artists working today.
Born in Calcutta in 1974 and raised in Kashmir, he came to London to study in 1998 and has lived there ever since. Inspired by a broad range of influences, including the old masters, Indian miniatures, Persian carpets and the Pre-Raphaelites, his paintings are infused with memories and longing for his homeland in Kashmir.
His technique constitutes a completely unique kind of enamel painting. Spending months on preparatory drawings, tracings and photographic studies, he then transfers the composition onto prepared wooden panels, establishing an intricate design with acrylic liner, which leaves a slightly raised line. He adds the enamel paint using needle-fine syringes and a porcupine quill, with which he manoeuvres the paint. The finished works are intricate, magical and breathtaking in their colour and complexity.
