IN CONVERSATION WITH ARTIST ANTHONY WHITE
Ghibli 2019 Flashe on linen 61 x 54.5cm Available for viewing in Paris @susanboullier
Photography Copyright Anthony White 2021 ADAGP Paris
He came to Paris, and Paris changed everything. The 2015 attacks forced him to question abstraction, to question the right to make non-objective painting while the world burned. What came next was a practice built on dissent.
"I love speaking to artists in all fields because they have a significant power to cause change, which carries a responsibility to consider the unintended consequences of their work."
Leila Antakly · Antakly ProjectsToday I am honoured to share my conversation with Anthony White — Australian-born painter living just outside Paris, whose abstract practice is inseparable from the political moment that reshaped it.
White's work is abstract-based, but it is not abstract in the way that retreats from the world — it is abstract in the way that charges at it. Influenced by the histories of colonialism and High Modernism, as well as socio-political concerns including government policy, sovereign power, and social justice movements such as the Gilets Jaunes and the growth of global fascism.
The 2015 Paris terrorist attacks were, by his own account, a great personal, artistic and intellectual catalyst — forcing him to question the validity of non-objective painting while the city he lived in was in mourning. What emerged from that crisis was a practice focused on reclaiming the gestural mark as a signifier of dissent.
His work encourages collective curiosity and questions systems of power — state and corporate surveillance, detainment, injustice. He wants to invite the viewer to think about different states of being, and to use painting as a vehicle for philosophy and, ultimately, emancipation.
"The 2015 Paris terrorist attacks were a great personal, artistic and intellectual catalyst which forced me to question my pursuit of abstraction and the validity of non-objective painting."
Anthony, thank you for joining us. Please tell us about yourself.
I'm an Australian-born artist, living just outside Paris. My work, which is abstract-based, is influenced by the histories of colonialism and High Modernism as well as socio-political concerns — particularly government policy, the notion of sovereign power, social justice movements such as the Gilets Jaunes, and the growth of global fascism.
My subsequent work has focused on social values and the role of culture in civilisation — with a particular interest in reclaiming the gestural mark as a signifier of dissent. I would like to invite the viewer to think about different states of being and to use my practice as a vehicle for philosophy and ultimately emancipation.
My favourite question — your greatest inspirations or influences?
And always — contemporary events in newspapers and journals.
Tell us a bit about your creative process.
It's a funny process really. I feel like it's most effective when I have time in the studio to document, write, read, and respond to various texts and follow a train of thought.
I have a lot of works on the go at the same time. So it's often working between various works on paper and paintings. There are always lots of ends undone, so to speak — and lots of ways to re-enter the work.
Who do you consider to be an icon of our time?
Too many to mention — but I'll name people in the human rights field, in which I have a deep interest.
What does wellbeing mean to you, and what do you practice?
Wellbeing means looking after yourself and setting boundaries for your work-life balance. Essentially: balancing health, work, and family commitments.
Anything else you'd like to share?
Be kind.
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"I would like to invite the viewer to think about different states of being and to use my practice as a vehicle for philosophy and ultimately emancipation."
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