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Notes
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In Nigel Cooke's recent painting 'Smile for the Monkey Man', minuscule disembodied human and animal heads are littered amongst the urban detritus and graffiti that forms a narrow band of focus along the bottom edge of the painting. The predominant section of the canvas reads firstly as a sky to the horizon line of wasteland but vague areas of implied texture and evidence of structural scale and miniscule fenestration correct this perception to suggest a vast plane of man-made construction, a walled penal complex or a futuristic citadel. A complex web of wires links the tiny windows along which simian creatures seem to navigate the surface of the structure and perplexingly a vast rainbow, symbol of promise, links the potentially comic scene above and the carnage below.
Title
Smile for the Monkey Man
Date
2001–2002
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 243.8 x W 182.8 cm
Accession number
P7476
Acquisition method
purchased from Modern Art, Glasgow, 2002
Work type
Painting
