Gideon Rubin

While the people depicted in Gideon Rubin’s paintings have blank ovals of pigment in place of facial features, their essential humanity – and indeed, their individuality – is never in doubt. Often derived from vintage photographs, or works by Old Masters, these images demand that we focus on poses, atmospheres and above all on the artist’s spare yet sensuous application of paint to his raw linen, canvas and board supports. The economy of Rubin’s approach allows space for us to enter his still and muted painted worlds, to experience them almost as though they were forgotten episodes from our own pasts, rising up through the fog of memory.