Felim Egan is, at the moment, riding high both in terms of increasing reputation and, it would seem, of artistic self-confidence. For over a decade now he has more or less stabilised his style, keeping to a quasi-minimal form of abstraction which nonetheless is "painterly" and not schematic. Unlike most of the official Minimalists, he does not paint uniformly and semi-mechanically, subjugating sensuous appeal to the demands of a rather harsh, or bare, formal geometry. His paint surfaces, though sometimes thin, are always alive and his "edges" are never hard.
This seems to me his best exhibition in several years - not that I have disliked his recent work, but there were times when I felt disquiet about the dry, brittle, almost sandy surfaces and a tendency towards desiccation rather than refinement. Egan is a painter of considerable and innate taste; but taste, while it is essential, is not everything. He seemed in some danger of pursuing it to the expense of other, more gutsy qualities.
This latest exhibition, however, is stronger and richer and with more "physique", though the basic style and motifs remain much the same. Not entirely, however; instead of the slightly skeletal motifs he tended to spread over the canvas, rather like bare trees, he now uses a few simple, irregular squares or lozenges of colour. It is, in certain respects, faintly reminiscent of Klee. These squares may float or glow softly against an indeterminate "ground", and are artfully placed, giving a considerable feeling of depth and recession.
Though some of the largest pictures do seem to spread a little thin - though always elegant and formally intelligent - there is more soul, and also more body, in these works than in his last two or three shows at the same gallery. In the office-room below there are some excellent smaller paintings, as well as a series of prints which prove, once again, that in graphic media alone he is one of the best and most accomplished artists in the country.
Runs until December 8th.