R E B E C C A - S I T A R

1969
born UK
1988-91
Winchester School of Art, BA Hons Fine Art
1990
Erasmus European Exchange, University of Barcelona
1991-92
Manchester Metropolitan University, MA Painting

Collections

Deutsche Bank AG, London; DLA London; Manchester City Art Gallery (Patron Loan Collection)

“Rebecca Sitar makes paintings in a vein of contemplative abstraction. Her images are intuitive and enigmatic. She states that her practice as an artist is an attempt to create objects that are beautiful - for beauty reminds us what it is to be human.

... The origin of Sitar’s paintings are not easy to define because they do not rest with one idea or one subject, but are rather an accumulation of
references - some purely visual, some to do with words, or with the way memory accumulates as a series of sensations. Sources for the work show a sympathy towards simplicity, the formal balance of a Japanese print, Haiku, the figure/ground
relationship in early Renaissance painting. They are also about continually testing the possibilites of the fluid matter of paint to arrive at a moment of ‘stillness’.

Sitar’s language in paint is distinctive, delicate. Though her mark making involves direct intervention with brushes and formally the work offers up the suggestion of particular areas of significance within the picture plane, the
overall effect of these paintings is one of constant reduction and shifting of focus. These canvases refine a sequence of improvisations which cannot be divorced from the physical presence of the painting itself but which move inextricably towards opening the void of the canvas...”

Extract from the invitation text
Rebecca Sitar: Mind Breaths
by Emma Hill
published for the exhibition at Turnpike Gallery, Manchester, 2000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Red Lanterns 2002 acrylic on paper 29.5 x 21cm