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拍品專文
Offered to coincide with this year’s Wimbledon Championships—one of the most iconic events of the London summer season—Wimbledon #6 (2013) is a vibrant example of Jonas Wood’s seminal tennis court pictures. These were some of the first works to bring the artist to international acclaim, and he continues to develop the series today. With Wood’s trademark bold, graphic colour and art-historical wit, they riff playfully on modernist abstraction. Details and colour schemes are varied within the standardised framework of the tennis court. On-screen scores record moments from real matches. Wimbledon #6 shows the semifinal of the 2012 tournament: the only time that Roger Federer beat Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon, later going on to win the men’s singles title. Wood carefully captures the court’s mown green stripes, painted markings and patches of bare earth. The players’ scores and Slazenger sponsorship can be seen on the green hoarding behind, with the crowd abstracted into blocks of shape.
Throughout Wood’s tennis court series, players and officials are left out. Large black margins crop each scene at top and bottom, conveying the experience of watching a televised match in a darkened room. The idea ‘came from photographs of turning the lights off and taking pictures of my TV during tennis matches and loving how it looked’, explains Wood. ‘… In the tennis courts, it’s more about composition, abstraction, and repetition’ (J. Wood quoted in Amadour, ‘Artist Jonas Wood Discusses His Latest Exhibition Focused on His Drawing Practice’, ARTnews, 7 August 2023). Wood’s treatment of shape and colour evokes the Pop paintings of artists such as David Hockney and Alex Katz. The lawn becomes a minimalist abstraction, the net a modernist grid: as a suite of variations on a theme, the series recalls projects such as Josef Albers’s famous Homage to the Square.
As well as exercises in formal gameplay, however, these works are celebrations of Wood’s love of sport. Some of his first forays into painting were based on basketball and baseball cards, which combined portraiture with textual elements and flat, vivid areas of colour. ‘Sometimes it is about the images being interesting, or that I like the colour of the card, and sometimes it is about loving the athlete’, he said (J. Wood quoted in J. Samet, ‘Beer with a Painter, LA Edition: Jonas Wood’, Hyperallergic, 12 September 2015). Wood conceives of his work as a sort of visual diary. His sport pictures join others based on the stuff of his daily life, including portraits of family and friends, interiors and still lives within his home and studio, and images derived from his own art collection. Wimbledon #6 captures a moment in sporting history through this distinctly personal lens.
Throughout Wood’s tennis court series, players and officials are left out. Large black margins crop each scene at top and bottom, conveying the experience of watching a televised match in a darkened room. The idea ‘came from photographs of turning the lights off and taking pictures of my TV during tennis matches and loving how it looked’, explains Wood. ‘… In the tennis courts, it’s more about composition, abstraction, and repetition’ (J. Wood quoted in Amadour, ‘Artist Jonas Wood Discusses His Latest Exhibition Focused on His Drawing Practice’, ARTnews, 7 August 2023). Wood’s treatment of shape and colour evokes the Pop paintings of artists such as David Hockney and Alex Katz. The lawn becomes a minimalist abstraction, the net a modernist grid: as a suite of variations on a theme, the series recalls projects such as Josef Albers’s famous Homage to the Square.
As well as exercises in formal gameplay, however, these works are celebrations of Wood’s love of sport. Some of his first forays into painting were based on basketball and baseball cards, which combined portraiture with textual elements and flat, vivid areas of colour. ‘Sometimes it is about the images being interesting, or that I like the colour of the card, and sometimes it is about loving the athlete’, he said (J. Wood quoted in J. Samet, ‘Beer with a Painter, LA Edition: Jonas Wood’, Hyperallergic, 12 September 2015). Wood conceives of his work as a sort of visual diary. His sport pictures join others based on the stuff of his daily life, including portraits of family and friends, interiors and still lives within his home and studio, and images derived from his own art collection. Wimbledon #6 captures a moment in sporting history through this distinctly personal lens.