17 June 2008 the PinchukArtCentre presents “Paul McCartney. Paintings”

"Paul McCartney. Paintings" exhibition will open in the PinchukArtCentre from 17 June till 13 July. The exhibition presents 41 works by Sir Paul McCartney created from 1988 to 1999. Several works will be exhibited in public for the first time. Paul McCartney's first ever art exhibition took place in 1999 in Siegen, Germany. This exhibition of McCartney paintings is the first in Eastern Europe.

Much like Willem de Kooning, McCartney is interested in the act of painting. He is not content with free abstraction, but is a distant relative of American expressionism with French Surrealist influences. McCartney, however, brings the surrealist play with elements from reality to an abstract level. Taking a closer look at his oeuvre, it seems as if McCartney never uses a definite style, or even that he does not aspire to develop a personal style. What the works have in common, however, has to do with the artist's method. It's as simple as the way McCartney applies paint onto the canvas, paints over existing paintings or paints over found materials on canvas.

From a historical perspective, painting is a way to represent a view or an image of reality. Through the ages, artists have searched for ways to render reality as true as possible, using perspective, shading and balanced composition. But that is not how Paul McCartney creates paintings. McCartney chooses painting itself as the subject of his paintings - a vehicle for connecting thoughts and ideas. He also leaves so called external decisions, such as the choice of colour, the brush style and the scale of each painting series to the process of creating the painting.

Paul McCartney's sole contribution regards the structure of the work and the way he combs the canvas with paint, using simple, playful, yet active brushstrokes. At times he pours the paint directly on the canvas, also without making pre-conceived choices, such as Georg Baselitz, Franz Kline, Gerhard Richter or Julian Schnabel have done.

In doing so, McCartney seeks to change the rules concerning the final image, composition, foreground, background and the combination of colours. With his works, there is just the act of applying the paint to the canvas. This is the purest form of painting.

Sir Paul McCartney will open a show personally on the following day after the Independence Concert that he presents on Saturday 14th June 2008 in Independence Square, Kiev, Ukraine. The exhibition will be open for public visiting on the June 17 - just a one day before Paul McCartney's birthday.

Paul McCartney had no formal art education even though as a child he won an Art Prize at school. He seriously started painting when he first met Willem de Kooning who has played a big influence on his art. During the last 20 years Paul has created about 500 works. He does not sell his paintings and keeps all works at his studio. For a long time Paul McCartney didn't publicly show his work. The first public exhibition of his paintings was held in 1999 in Germany.

Previous shows:
Seigen, Germany (May - July 1999),
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (May - August 2002),
Arnolfi Gallery, Bristol (September - October 2000),
Matthew Marks Gallery, NY (November 2000),
Royal Academy of Arts, London (May 2001),
Exeter City Art Gallery (June 2004),
DACS, The Mall Galleries (August 2004).

Paul McCartney's bio, a list of works and hi-res images of works approved for media available at:
http://pinchukfund.org/ru/news/archive/2008/06/13/778.html

Visitor information: "Paul McCartney. Paintings" show will be available in the PinchukArtCentre from 17 June to 13 July, 2008 from Tuesday through Sunday: 12:00 - 21:00.
Closed Monday.
Admission is free.

About PinchukArtCentre
PinchukArtCentre (Kyiv, Ukraine) is one of the largest centers for contemporary art in the Eastern Europe. Its key activities include arranging exhibitions, seminars, work-shops, providing support to cultural projects, etc. More than 350,000 thousand people have visited PinchukArtCentre since it was opened in September 2006.

Previous shows:

First Acquisitions (September - December 2006)
GENERATIONS.UsA (February - March 2007)
Vik Munis: A Survey (April - May 2007)
Instinctive Eye: selection of photographs from Sir Elton John Collection (June - August 2007)
A Poem About an Inland Sea (June - November 2007, Ukrainian Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale)
Reflection (September 2007 - February 2008)
Mariko Mori: Oneness (April - June 2008)

PinchukArtCentre is one of the projects of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation.
More info: www.pinchukfund.org

In 2007 the PinchukArtCentre officially represents Ukraine at the 52nd Venice Biennale.
More information: www.ukrainianpavilion2007.org

Contacts:
Press contact: Dennis Kazvan, tel: +38 044 494-1148 or [email protected]

PinchukArtCentre tel: +38 044 590-0858 or [email protected]

Public information:
PinchukArtCentre, the centre for contemporary art
1/3-2, "А" Block, Krasnoarmeyskaya/Basseynaya, St., Bessarabskiy Block, Kyiv , Ukraine 01 004

Hours: Tuesday through Sunday: 12:00 - 21:00
Closed Monday
Admission is free.

Additional information:

On Saturday 14th June 2008, at the invitation of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, Paul McCartney will perform to hundreds of thousands of people in Independence Square, Kiev, Ukraine. This groundbreaking event has been named Independence Concert and was launched today in Kiev by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation. Paul's special show will be free to attend and will be broadcasted live on Novy TV. This exciting event will be seen as symbolic for several generations of Ukrainians. It will allow people of different ethnicities and religions, political preferences and geopolitical orientations to come together around the ideas of peace, love and unity; the very ideas that Paul McCartney with The Beatles helped bring into the World. Independence Concert is an independent social initiative that aims to strengthen the confidence and understanding in the Ukrainian society.

Back to the list