Page 16 - Art First: Kate McCrickard: New Romantics

Table of Ghosts (page 16) is the largest work in the exhibition and it is a masterwork.
This too has family members at a dinner table but they are placed on three sides
of a vertically tilted surface with its striped tablecloth and plates at various stages
of a meal. In the background is a painting of a horse cantering beyond its frame
and a view to a boat sailing on the sea. Some figures are warmly painted presences,
others are almost grisaille, partly ghosted, reminding us of the passing of time and
the way in which annual family gatherings make for shifts in position around the
table. The younger children are assisted by older ones; in time, the boy top left will
become the young man with a black T shirt beside him. Note the clues of the Covid
mask and the mobile phone on the table. If you were briefly reminded of Bonnard,
McCrickard brings you directly into the present. And into the shimmering life of
timeless discovery and joy in her studio.

This is a key moment in what collectors, museums, friends, and most tellingly, fellow
artists, already understand to be a properly significant journey and a rich, joyous,
generous career bathed in a love of life and all that it has to offer.

Clare Cooper
Founding Director of Art First

March 2023

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