Catalogue Raisonné. Capriccio, CR616 Search

Cr616 capriccio ew

Capriccio

CR 616

Scotland

2005

Oil on canvas

72 x 64 inches

Citations and Comments

A capriccio is a sudden start, motion or freak. A free, fantastic style, a prank, trick or caper. A thing or work of fancy. 1696: Phillips. ‘Capriccios are pieces of music, poetry and painting wherein the force of the Imagination has better success than the Rules of Art’. This painting is full of paradox and ambiguity. These qualities encourage abstract thought, and allow the eye and the mind to wander and speculate. Thus it becomes possible to avoid thinking about the surreal arrangement of the human figure, and the internal life of prisoner. Formal concerns become a sort of anaesthetic, or at least a way of re-composing the reality of Abu Ghraib.

Gerald Laing, 'Artist's Notes on War Paintings', unpublished manuscript, 2004
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