Jago Max Williams

The Adoration of the Golden Calf 2005-06 oil and gold on linen

I have become interested in the idea of parallels between the fanaticism for celebrities through the media and the worship of religion through altarpieces, icons and statues. I began to focus on Caravaggio’s paintings of St John the Baptist and soon saw the image of the severed head as some kind of metaphor for the fragile nature of celebrity. The way we evaluate someone’s fame is to do with how well known or recognisable they are. For a famous person to lose their recognition either partially or totally for whatever reason is the equivalent to a symbolic beheading rendering them powerless.

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I call these ‘Cave Paintings’, inwhich the figures attempt to support the physicality of the paint above them. I aim to contrast traditional forms of representing the body within a ‘landscape’ borrowed from Abstract Expressionism. My intention has been to produce a series that portrays the figure’s psychological condition captured in an uncontrollable physical state. These figures are contextualised within a frame where the painted gestures reflect that state.

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Nocturne in Black and Gold I 2006 oil on linen

The paintings from the Agony and the Ecstasy series try to depict what I see as the timeless struggle of the artist. I am interested in the joys and conflicts that arise during the artistic journey. The series was inspired by having seen Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel.

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