Kaye Donachie / Roderick Maclachlan / David Osbaldeston

“Art is not different from nature, nor can it pass beyond the bounds of nature. The light of doctrine which, by a natural gift, is scattered here and there and appears in men at different times and places can be reunited by art; such light is never found completely or even largely in one single man. “

(Quintilian ca. 35)

Life’s an Illusion Love is a Dream brought together artists in an attempt to investigate what constitutes the epic within a work of art. Exploring the impact of the viewer’s lofty expectations of the artist and the artist’s desire to accomplish something that extends beyond the usual, the artists included in this exhibition go some way to achieving a sense of the epic, colossal, magnificent, and heroic within art.

In “The Unknown Masterpiece” (short story written by Honoré de Balzac in 1831), Balzac attempted analyse the condition of being an artist exploring his own reverence for genius and ‘noble enthusiasm’. Within the novel Balzac describes one of the characters as feeling “the profound emotion which must cause the heart of every great artist to beat fast, when, in the flower of youth, he encounters the presence of a man of genius or of a masterpiece.”

Whether the desire to create a masterpiece or romantic notions of what constitutes a masterpiece still exist in contemporary society is debateable, Life’s an Illusion Love is a Dream brought together the work of David, Roderick and Kaye in an attempt to examine these possibilities.