Liverpool and Cologne’s three cathedrals. Jan 2012. A review
Liverpool
and Cologne’s three cathedrals
Cologne City Hall on 7 – 27th January
2012
Cathedrals,
and in particular Gothic ones, are often a Gesamtkunstwerk—a ‘total work of art’—uniting
architecture, sculpture and stained-glass art. To the eye they resemble rocky landscapes,
stretching up from the earth towards the sky. Arches are held aloft by columns and
pillars, as the treetop’s canopy crowns above
its
mighty trunk. It is not unsurprising that the British artist Colin Taylor (b.
1960), would start two years ago drawing cathedrals. The Manchester-based artist
was commissioned by the Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool to complete a series of
drawings of the building’s interior, which were shown in the spring of 2011.
After
this exhibition Taylor received a further challenge: For an exhibition in
Cologne he was to commit the other two cathedrals to paper, namely the
Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, and the Gothic cathedral in Cologne, the
oldest of the three.
For
Taylor, a passionate mountain climber, stone from which all three cathedrals
were built—is a material with which he is well acquainted. Taylor has climbed extensively
in his native Britain, in continental Europe, South America and Asia, and has
subsequently committed these experiences as source material for his art. For
Taylor, both mountaineering and drawing have something archaic as well as
radical. Just as a sure footing is essential for the climber, for the artist it
is a secure standpoint.
Though
requiring concentration and exertion, both activities bring elation when the
goal is reached, whether this is the summit or a completed work. Both are for
Taylor mutually fruitful and are vital components of a process: climbing a
mountain, experiencing it, viewing it with an artist’s eye, then executing that
vision onto paper;
gradually emerging a highly expressive work. Taylor himself has said that ‘drawing is the foundation’
of his artistic work, upon which a building can be
constructed. But how can one draw an edifice as expansive and massive as a
cathedral? Taylor’s drawing are organic in that the start point is fairly
arbitrary and the image develops outwards. To accomplish this, Taylor’s
preferred media are graphite and charcoal, as these materials enable the artist
to commit the subject quickly onto paper. Several layers and textures sometimes
involving other minerals such as iron
powder or red bole (a kind of clay) are applied which over a period of months are
drawn, removed and re-drawn.
What
does Colin Taylor’s intend with these cathedral drawings? The artist wishes to
depict neither the cathedrals nor their structural elements in true-to-life
detail. Instead he attempts to coax out artistically each of the cathedrals’
identity and physical uniqueness. What results are their distinguishing
features while nonetheless underscoring their commonalities.
Eva-Maria Will, Cologne