Vincent Python
Hard to immediately place, Vincent Python describes his paintings as depicting “utopian scenes from everyday contemporary life”. The effect is strange, dizzying, even disorientating. The life he paints is a specific one, a rural idyll. We might perhaps catch overtones of Stanley Spencer’s Cookham paintings, depicting contemporary rural iterations of Biblical scenes. Yet, while Spencer’s paintings were rooted in the past and in tradition, Python’s can’t but feel forward-looking. The titles surely have a part in this, switching between French and English. This prevents us from locating a singular place or location. They are rootless, the potential settings limitless. The characters in the paintings enjoy moments of leisure and restful contemplation. Whether a post-work future or simply a call to look after ourselves and find time for rest and tranquillity, for a moment at least, the paintings take us away from the bustle of day-to-day life.
