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Even Dwarves …

© the artist. Image credit: British Council Collection

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Notes

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This is one of a small group of paintings, which could be installed as a series, each depicting a scene near McFadyen's home – a wall, an open space and a high-rise block of flats. In a letter dated October 1997 the artist wrote that the painting was 'prompted by Herzog's film Even Dwarves Started Small, in title as least… Briefly the dwarves are metaphors for the smallness of people whose relationship to their surroundings is that of a 'victim'; the fact that this is permanent and insurmountable; the image of project housing as a zoo; the expressiveness of graffiti; (all of this) is consistent with themes in my painting (of the time). What (was) new, is the staging… of the 'characters' in the scene reminiscent of the graveyard sequence from Plague of the Zombies (1966).

British Council Collection

London

Title

Even Dwarves …

Date

1987

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 189.2 x W 134.5 cm

Accession number

P5563

Acquisition method

purchased from the artist, 1987

Work type

Painting

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British Council Collection

British Council, 1 Redman Place, London, Greater London E20 1JQ England

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