JANE BUSTIN - Violet and the War

8 October - 5 November 2004



During a recent visit to my grandfather Roy Robert Fone, I asked him what was he thinking about. He replied: "Violet and the war".

Violet, violence, violate, vio-light

Violet was his wife, my grandmother. They were married in 1940 and were together until she died in 1993. They were only apart during World War II from 1940-45.

I started to make paintings based on this phrase - “Violet and the war”.

An investigation into the colour violet led to me researching the origins of Tyrian purple, an ancient and precious colour made from the 'tears of sea snails'. Due to its rarity, Tyrian purple was highly prized and was reserved for royal and spiritual leaders.

This was all changed in 1856 by a young chemist, William Perkin. Whilst attempting to find a treatment for malaria Perkin discovered how to produce the colour mauve (mauveine). This discovery led to the first artificial violets, crimsons, blues and greens. Perkin had brought colour to the masses. The science that Perkin created also led to the development of explosives used in World War II, as well as being used as preservative for tinned food for the soldiers in combat.

Violet and the war were intertwined.

I made paintings relating to these thoughts, where hues of violet and crimson, echoes of ultra violet light were juxtaposed with the luminosity of aluminium, the earthiness of flax and linen, and the preciousness of silk.

The exhibition is accompanied by war time letters between Roy and Violet, chemical equations of William Perkin and samples of mauveine dye.


Jane Bustin 2004

Jane Bustin’s second solo show with the Eagle Gallery is a series of recent paintings that evolved from a chance comment made by her grandfather. Asked what he was thinking about he replied “Violet and the War”. Though his words referred to his wife, Bustin’s grandmother, they were curiously applicable to the artist’s own investigations in her practice as an abstract artist.

Bustin’s work has consistently questioned the metaphorical potential for the painted image to convey meanings beyond its formal constraints. Previous paintings have referenced other creative disciplines, aligning a process led experimentation with materials and supports with an attempt to make paintings that are the visual equivalents of words or musical forms, or the ‘making visual’
of concepts found in religious and philosophical thought. Recent works investigate the resonance and materiality of particular colours and she is currently working on a series of life size black portraits of contemporary individuals for a touring exhibition in 2005.

A text by Sally O"Reilly has been commissioned for the exhibition