Godwin Bradbeer Artist Statement:

Definition:

‘Imago’ In psychoanalytic theory is an unconscious idealized mental picture that is formed early in life and retained in adulthood.

Also:

the definitive form of an insect in maturity eg. a butterfly.

The drawing ‘Imago Verdi’ is from the 'Imago' series of drawings, that I have addressed intermittently since the turn of the century. I have always definitively been a figurative artist, this series of drawings however isolates for me in an abstracted way the unique and enigmatic nature of human identity and complexity as manifest within the frontality of the face.

The face reveals only a little, but it conceals our entireity.

Over many sessions these ‘Imagos’ are built up with densely drawn layers of white chinagraph as sculptural ovoids, endeavouring the textural sensation of porcelain, alabaster and ivory. Within this form I seek a face - like many artists before me – as if the image already exists. My job is to expose an image not to create it. I struggle to find this image, it is not predetermined for me or mediated by a photographic portrait. That image might be young or mature, male or female – though they tend toward androgeny - Eastern or Western, soft or severe, gazing outward or within.

I like them to look enigmatically fragile, as if they might crack, cry or shatter. Amongst many influences, I should cite the beautiful work of Constantin Brancusi and the enduring sculpture of religious and classical cultures.

'Imago Verdi' is a rescued drawing from my works abandoned, I do not know exactly when I began it, but having relocated it in 2019 I began to take it seriously and worked on it purposefully until this year.

G.B.