Robert Priseman

The artist Robert Priseman produces series of paintings which approach contemporary social issues utilizing a technique of post-modern detachment. Born in Spondon, Derby, United Kingdom in 1965 Priseman read Aesthetics and Art Theory at the University of Essex under art theorist Professor Michael Podro. Priseman initially began his working life as a book designer for Longman Publishers from 1989-92. Whilst there he began painting portraits in oils. Sitters from this period include His Holiness the Dalai Lama, His Grace the Duke of Atholl, Phil Collins, Jeremy Paxman, Lord Condon, The Marquess of Northampton, Sir Eric Mensforth, Lord and Lady Johnston and Cardinal Basil Hume with work being held in numerous public collections including The Royal Collection, Windsor Castle, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and Cranfield University.

In 2004 Priseman gave up portrait painting and began working on the ‘Hospital’, ‘Subterraneans’, and ‘The Francis Bacon Interiors’ series of paintings. The ‘Subterraneans’ series took their primary source of inspiration from the 1977 album ‘Low’ by David Bowie. Painted over the course of 2004–2006, the images present a sequence of liminal spaces such as train stations, underground walkways and waiting rooms, which capture an atmosphere of estrangement and alienation. Each picture is stripped of regional references, fine detail and people, creating a visual world which exists in-between the places where we all have identity. The ‘Hospital’ series was also painted between 2004-6, with the work drawing on a renaissance understanding of perspective and architectural forms influenced by the art deco movement. These works were exhibited at Derby Museums and Art Gallery in 2007, being shown as a tie-in with the Joseph Wright collection.

The Francis Bacon Interiors

‘The Francis Bacon Interiors' trace spaces significant to the life of the artist Francis Bacon. They were painted between 2006–2008 and examine the Paris hotel room where Bacon’s lover and muse George Dyer committed suicide, the room in a catholic hospital in Madrid where Bacon himself was later to die under a crucifix and a series of studios where he painted. Whilst engaged in this project Priseman worked on an 'In Conversation' text with the art critic, curator and life-long friend of Bacon's, Michael Peppiatt. The paintings were exhibited at the University of Essex in 2007 and then alongside work by Bacon at Huddersfield Art Gallery in 2009.

No Human Way to Kill

In 2007 Priseman developed the project 'No Human Way to Kill' out of the 'Hospital' series. 'No Human Way to Kill' was exhibited in London and New York in 2010 and again in 2011. The series of paintings takes a detached position to show the five different methods of execution used in the USA which include Hanging, Firing Squad, Gassing, Lethal Injection and Electrocution. Alongside the paintings, twelve etchings look at other methods of state sanctioned execution which have been used around the world, including the Guillotine and Garrotte. The series examines how different countries have adopted different techniques to kill condemned prisoners, highlighting how national identity is apparent in many of the methods employed, which in turn indicates execution to be a socially constructed act of group catharsis.

During the New York shows, live debates around the issues explored were streamed to universities accross the USA and Canada which included Yale, Columbia, Arizona University, the University of Minnesota and the Cleveland Institute of Art. No Human Way to Kill is now used for many educational purposes including training for Amnesty International, European schools education and campaingning against the re-introduction of hanging in Trinidad.

A book on the work and ideas surrounding it was published by the Seabrook Press in collaboration with the Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex and Amnesty International in 2009. The book acts to reflect on different points of view to the topic. It opens with an account from Reverend Cathy Harrington whose daughter Leslie Mazzara was lost to murder. Cathy negotiated a life sentence for her daughter’s murderer, who had potentially been facing the death sentence. This is followed by an overview of life on death row in San Quentin from former Crips gang member Anthony Ross. Then former Texas prison Warden Jim Willett who oversaw 89 executions gives a detailed account of how an execution is carried out.

Gas Chambers

Following 'No Human Way to Kill' Priseman produced the 'Gas Chambers' series. This project comes in two parts and focuses on the creeping steps taken in Nazi Germany that began with the gassing of the mentally ill and ended in genocide. The first part consists of six small delicately coloured pencil drawings which are designed to look like hand coloured postcards and show the outsides of the hospitals in Germany and Austria where the T4 Euthanasia programme took place between 1939 and 1941.

The second part of this project consists of five large scale oil paintings (each 6 ft x 9 ft). The paintings trace the movement taken by the Nazis towards an industrialised killing process which resulted in Auschwitz where up to 2,500 people were killed at a time. The series takes it’s artistic cue from Mark Rothko’s ‘Seagram Series’ and is accompanied by an essay entitled 'On Robert Prisman and the Possibility of Painting' by the curator and art historian Professor Peter Vergo.

Omagh

In 2010 Priseman produced two paintings on the Omagh bombing in Northern Ireland. 'Omagh'. Each painting in the 'Omagh' set shows a view of Market Street in Omagh, one looking up and one looking down the road. The first is based on a photograph taken just before the explosion which was found in the rubble after the event. It is a view down Market Street next to S. D. Kell's shop and shows two people standing by the car which was packed with explosives. It was taken a few minutes before the bomb went off. The second is based on a video still and shows a view up Market Street towards Omagh Courthouse, which was the intended target. It depicts the scene of devastation just after the bomb went off.

The bomb went off at 15.04, not 15.10 as many believe, killing 31 people and injuring 220. The bombers incorrectly identified Market Street as Main Street, a mistake which created the largest single atrocity in 'The Troubles' seeing Catholics and Protestants devastated in equal measure. It affected a large number of children, many of whom came from Spain on an exchange programme. The bomb exploded thirteen weeks after the signing of the 'Good Friday Agreement' which should have seen a final end to 'The Troubles'. The day the bomb went off was the day many mothers were out shopping for their children's new school uniforms, ready for the start of school a couple of weeks later.

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