Provenance

Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town.

Private Collection.

Exhibited

Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, Paintings from What Lies Beneath, 2006.

Notes

Accompanied by Michael Stevenson and Deborah Poynton (2009) Deborah Poynton Everything Matters, Michael Stevenson and Savannah College of Art and Design, soft cover.

The present lot features two nude scenes, one more overt than the other, set in intimate domestic spaces. Behind the standing man is a vacuum cleaner, a coffee mug and aloe plants, grounding the scene in everyday life. The woman sits on a bed with a young child staring directly into the lens, while a third figure, a man, hunches over, facing away.

The work reflects Poynton’s creative vision, capturing recurring figures, the psychological tension between subjects, and her meticulous attention to detail.

Most, if not all, of her depictions of people are based on photographs she has taken herself, focusing on individuals she finds intriguing. In her paintings, Poynton places great emphasis on capturing the essence of her subjects. Her works possess a quality that is both true to life and yet, within their reality, often feel abstracted. The placement of the body is of particular importance. She paints on a large scale, frequently rendering images that are not only larger than the viewer but larger than the subjects themselves. Poynton is less interested in the physical characteristics of the person and more focused on the sensibilities that resonate with her own life.

This painting was featured in the book Deborah Poynton: Everything Matters, published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same title produced by the Savannah College of Art and Design. The book offers an extensive reproduction of Poynton's paintings from 1998 to 2008, along with essays by photographer David Goldblatt.