Artwork Information

Against a black and depthless field an explosion of triangular and semi-circular painted forms is suspended in action. Such drama is achieved by strikingly modest means. Simple shapes infilled with scribbles and stripes resemble improvised paper cut-outs. The resulting effect is somehow organic yet tantalizingly unspecific. Although well aware of Abstract Expressionism, Milnes-Smith worked in a much closer dialogue with British abstract artists of his own milieu and his compositions often relate to the flat surface of a domestic table. The unassuming scale of his works does not limit their dynamic impact: as one writer noted of his 1990 work, his ‘explorations of space are grand as well as intimate’.