Artists Stanley Greaves and Akima McPherson, in this their fourth Conversation, examine Gary Thomas’s sculpture, Retrogression. This piece, completed in 1975, is currently available for viewing in the first floor gallery and is part of the exhibition ‘Abstract Art in the National Collection Paintings and Sculpture’ which runs until July 18.
Stanley Greaves: Seeing this work the first impression was that it was presented horizontally as opposed to the standard vertical. The next and most striking feature was that the work seemed to deny the grain of the wood in the nature of its presentation. There was no “woodiness’ and the form could easily have been cast in bronze. I wondered about the title which to my mind did not seem to relate to the form.
Akima McPherson: The horizontality of the work did also strike me as unusual for local sculpture. I was additionally taken in by the abstract figuration – the form mimics a woman lying down, but the sensuality of the posture and the form does not seem to