Philip Diggle: Bringing It All Back Home

About

Bringing It All Back Home references Bob Dylan and the voice of poetry, protest and politics that

characterised a period of artistic blossoming in New York and elsewhere in the 1960’s, including Diggle’s

own home town of Manchester where he was involved in the punk scene of the 1970’s and 1980’s.

The spirit of rebellion lives on in this anarchic show of figurative and abstract work.  Diggle is, in his own

words,  “…for an art that is political, erotic, abstract, exposed – and does something other than sit and entertain

…in a museum.  I am for an art that embroils itself with everyday and comes out on top”.

Diggle references Sartre, Baudelaire and Wittgenstein:   “…climbing Wittgenstein’s metaphorical ladder

of knowledge…I needed to jump from the it’s last rung – without a net or anything like argument – so

that the world could be correctly understood – painted and given some form of impression of penetrating

the essence of things.”

He cites the recent Soutine/Kossoff show at Hastings Contemporary as one which excited him.  Many of his

own oil paintings have heavily encrusted and worked-on surfaces,  “enlivened by a constant play of

oppositions, each an abstract drama of visual events, a material metaphor for the invisible dynamics of the

world it reflects” (Mel Gooding, art critic).  Jackson Pollock is also a key influence, especially the large

New York canvases.  Pollock’s phrase “I am nature” resonates in this show.

Philip Diggle has lived in Highgate for over 30 years and this is his 8th show at Highgate Gallery.  He is a

regular contributor to the Royal Academy annual exhibition and has also exhibited in Berlin, Paris,

Barcelona and New York.  His work is held in collections at Chase Manhattan Bank and the Rockefeller

Center in New York, at Caius College Cambridge and in many boardrooms and private collections.

There will be works on paper for sale as well as canvases.

For further information about Philip Diggle see his website:  www.philipdiggleart.com

Gallery open: Wed – Fri: 13.00, Sat 11.00 – 16.00, Sun 11.00 – 17.00