Zuleika Gallery is proud to present a new exhibition of work by Nigel Hall RA (b.1943) and his late partner Manijeh Yadegar Hall (1951-2016), who lived and worked together for over forty years. This exhibition includes new elliptical works on paper made in charcoal and acrylic by Hall, presented alongside Yadegar-Hall’s textural paintings, and explores the intellectual and artistic dialogue between the two artists – a sculptor and a painter respectively – whose practices are both dedicated to abstraction and minimalism.
Yadegar Hall’s relationship with the sculptor and Royal Academician Nigel Hall, is an important part of her story. Married for over forty years, Yadegar and Hall exhibited jointly on a couple of occasions. Mutual respect for each other’s work underpinned the relationship of these two artists, the exchange of ideas and an immersive understanding of each other’s work was pivotal to their respective practices and artistic evolution. Hall describes Yadegar’s work as ‘atmospheric, often monochrome, smoky and textural’ and reflects “We are both interested in abstraction, but fundamental to the works was an interest in landscape. We travelled a lot together, particularly to Switzerland, and were interested in each other’s work. She gave me good advice. She didn’t exhibit a great deal, and was too modest, shying away from opportunities lest people thought that she received them because of me.’
Yadegar developed her own powerful and unique visual language, creating work alongside her male counterparts also exploring abstraction at the same time, with an unequivocal femininity. Her paintings are strong assertions of her womanhood – and possess that rare quality of combining striking beauty with a quiet contemplative quality. They exude a powerful, but serene aura and their elemental nature makes us pause to reflect upon their essence and consider our personal response to their abstract forms. Yadegar wrote of her works, `The resultant marks and washes echo the physical rhythms of the body. Areas of dark and light take turns in the dominant role. There is a strong element of spatial interweaving, an interplay between figure and ground, a contrasting of soft and hard edge changing the focus from sharp to hazy. They develop observations of the natural world into completely abstract images; memories of places, moments in time, the transition between night and day, dawn to dusk. I would wish the paintings to have a contemplative beauty and to transmit light with a sensation of calm, but strong feeling’.
For enquiries please email info@zuleikagallery.com
