Dimensions: support: 2140 x 2445 mm frame: 2149 x 2452 x 40 mm
Copyright: © The estate of Michael Andrews | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: This is "The Deer Park" by Michael Andrews, a painting in the Tate, though its date is unknown. The layered composition and figures give it a hazy, dreamlike quality. What do you see in this piece? Curator: The figures layered in this way, almost translucent, bring to mind ghosts of memory. Notice how they’re arranged within architectural and natural spaces: the observation deck above, the deer park itself, the indoor setting. Editor: I do see that. Curator: What might these different spaces represent? Perhaps different states of mind, or even different eras superimposed onto one another. Consider what Andrews might be telling us about how we experience the past in the present. Editor: That makes me think about how memories are never really gone. Curator: Precisely. Visual symbols create a cultural continuity through memory and imagination.
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/andrews-the-deer-park-t01897
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'The Deer Park' was inspired by Norman Mailer's novel of the same title. For Andrews, the novel seemed to describe 'the world of Soho' whose clubs and bars he had frequented. Rather than illustrating the text, however, the painting creates a new, imaginary situation involving a cast of different characters. Its subject is social behaviour 'where people are relaxed and project images close to themselves'. The figures are all based on photographs of people from show business and literary worlds, past and present. They include Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot and the poet Rimbaud. The background is based on 'The Boar Hunt' by Velasquez in the National Gallery, London. Gallery label, August 2004
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