Bury New Road artist who emigrated to Canada in 1957 gets rediscovered…
On the face of it there are just five small abstract paintings that are a random mix of colours, splodges and scrapings. But these artworks draw the viewer into a frenzied world where they are challenged to find faces and figures that lurk somewhere in a colour cacophony. The titles provide the key…The Old Man and The Boy Pondering, Lady Sings The Hues, Three Faces, Man With Red Top and Umbrella On The Beach, One Eyed Devil…
On the surface, The Old Man and The Boy Pondering is merely an abstract work in acrylic bright yellows, reds and browns. But climb into the picture and amongst the storm of paint there is a tiny figure of a boy pondering who-knows-what, and a larger image of an old man’s face looking out from the anarchic landscape.
Other paintings in the series feature more faces and figures, like Lady Sings The Hues, in which a chanteuse calmly Billie Holidays from the colour splats. Finding these well-crafted creations is not just a game, it’s a journey in which the viewer, like a cloud gazer, will find all sorts of other shapes and figures along the way…These artworks are small but overwhelming…*
Born in 1929 and from humble beginnings in the long demolished Penrose Street (between Bury New Road and Bury Old Road), Arthur Sugarman first worked as a sewing machine mechanic in the sweatshops of Strangeways before looking for a better life by emigrating to Canada in 1957.
In Toronto, private galleries sold lots of his on-trend artwork in the Seventies and Eighties, huge abstract paintings with plaster relief adding depth…
“Let’s be truthful about it, paint, texture and composition is the real art” he once wrote “Subject matter is something else”..
Later, in the Nineties, there were more abstracts…visions drifting down and across the canvas and Pollock-inspired pieces that were also very popular.
The series of five enigmatic artworks, completed in 1990, also draw the viewer into Sugarman’s world. The figures and faces, some in startling 3-D, when found, will reveal that they are all caught in a sea of confusion…like us all.
Arthur Sugarman died in Toronto in 2012…as well as being an artist, he was also an inventor, creating a unique horse racing game on pioneering vinyl called ‘They’re Off’/‘They’re At The Post’ which is still being acclaimed on the internet…
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2041/theyre-at-the-post
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5l75romOXY
* Arthur Sugarman did provide maps of where the hidden images are located – anyone baffled can email burynewrd@gmail.com for answers
Article by Stephen Kingston (a relative of Arthur Sugarman).
