Derek Jarman’s Capacious Monochrome

He-Man, Buzz-Off, Ratar-O, Christ: in his mixed-media painting Demon Chief (1988), the late British filmmaker and artist Derek Jarman places a model of the crucified Son of God alongside figurines from Masters of the Universe (1982–present) and ThunderCats (1985–89), coating them all in a patchy layer of black oil paint. Tarring Jesus and the demons with the same brush, Jarman appears to muddy distinctions between the two – suggesting both are worthy of equal disrespect. The effect, however, is neither particularly furious nor shocking. Traces of their cartoon silliness remain, and the silhouetted figurines – with their rippling biceps and calabash thighs – do not quite suit a dark night of the soul. Rather than a flashy protest piece, Jarman’s monochrome altarpiece is capacious, letting his terrors and fantasies lie side by side.

Found objects abound in ‘The Black Paintings: A Chronology, Part II 1988–1991’ at Amanda Wilkinson Gallery in London, as they did in the previous instalment, ‘Part I, 1984–1987’. The earlier works are concerned more with place, replete with visual markers of an England in decline. Paintings such as The Last of England (1986) and Home Counties (1987) are populated with the debris of a nation: rusted compasses, model cars, bony driftwood and a smashed plaster skull are all glued to the canvas, looking like salvages from a wreck. Made in England (1986) includes a rusted hatchet, lain across the canvas like a prize of war. Its handle is painted with one brisk streak of black, but its head is left untouched – leaving bare the blacksmith’s inscription (‘John Riley / Solid Steel / England’) and a series of tiny ruby sequins lining the cutting edge. These gems glitter among the crushed cans and rifle cartridges, too dainty for their surroundings. There is disdain, here, towards a country proud of its provincial violence – but also a degree of distance, as if Jarman is mocking the apparent menace of his artefacts.

At the end of 1986, Jarman was diagnosed with HIV. The artworks he produced in his final five years cannot be defined only by this fact, but his subsequent move to Dungeness, on the south coast of England, his growing contempt for the press and his deteriorating eyesight all contributed to the artist turning inwards, his world contracting. Towards the end of his life, Jarman’s titles shifted from the declamatory, such as The Falklands – False Heroes… (1986), to the personal, as in Andy (1989). The compositions became more abstract, the black paint coming to resemble less material things: blindness, shade, sleep. For some of these later pieces, Jarman uses tar, smothering all it touches – as in Untitled (Clothes) (1989), where he tars and feathers some blue coveralls. There’s an evident anger to these works, as if Jarman is engaged in a private game of punishment where the spectator is all but irrelevant.

The most successful of Jarman’s ‘Black Paintings’ invite the viewer to witness the artist’s mental associations as if in real time. Hook, Line and Sinker (1987) is coated with a mixture of dried grain and diced glass. The coarse fragments resemble uncut gems, while the scattered seeds are suggestive of something more carnal. Among this jumble of kernels and shards are three painted seashells, crawling like pawprints up the canvas – the last placed like a crown atop a sepia picture of a boy on a beach. Below, the stone weight of a sinker dangles from the bottom of the painting. These flourishes show a mind stretching in all directions, trying to convey the gleam and shadow of all it sees. This is, apart from anything else, an act of generosity.

Derek Jarman’s ‘The Black Paintings: A Chronology Part II, 1988 – 1991’ is on view at Amanda Wilkinson, London, until 20 September. The previous instalment, ‘The Black Paintings: A Chronology Part I, 1984 – 1987’ was on view from 6 June to 11 July

^{Main image: Derek Jarman, Untitled (Clothes) (detail), 1989, tar and mixed media on canvas, 47 × 47 cm. Courtesy: Keith Collins Will Trust and Amanda Wilkinson, London}