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Notes
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Painted on an Egyptian cotton pillowslip, ‘Sunbather’ shows the artist lying on his back on a towel, relaxed on holiday, but surrounding him are dark radiating beams and scorch marks made with an iron. Hall has commented that the painting is concerned with a combination of daydreams and actual recurrent dreams from his childhood concerning the imagined murder of his father with an iron. Though the dreams evoke very differing emotions, both involve heat. As the artist notes, he was ‘daydreaming of luxurious holidays amidst actual dreams … energy being used to burn, sunburn, eyes burning, dark sunglasses. [It is] essentially a young gay man’s feeling of ecstasy and freedom.’ This painting was shown in 1980 in a one man exhibition at Ikon Gallery in Birmingham selected by Hugh Stoddart.
Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre
London
Title
Sunbather
Date
1978
Medium
oil, acrylic & gesso on cotton
Measurements
H 43.7 x W 37.8 cm
Accession number
AC 3049
Acquisition method
purchased from the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
Work type
Painting
