Magician’s Hand 1984

Gary Wragg made this painting, 'Magician’s Hand', with oil on canvas. It’s a busy painting, full of frantic gestures set against a dark background, like the artist has conjured up colour from the void. The painting is heavily layered with expressive strokes of white, red and blue breaking through like flashes of light. I imagine Wragg building up the surface, scraping away, adding, and reworking until the painting found its own weird kind of balance. Look at the crisscrossing red lines that seem to map a hidden dimension within the painting. It makes me think of other painters who use line in a similarly frantic way, like Cy Twombly. Painting is this amazing conversation across time, where each artist responds to those who came before, transforming and expanding on their ideas. Wragg's painting is a testament to that ongoing dialogue, a kind of embodied expression which embraces uncertainty and multiple meanings.