Regarding Ardys, 2009
Jacquard tapestry
40 x 49.25 in. Edition of 18
In a 1991 interview, Alan Magee describes the early incarnations of his stone portraits as a catalyst, enabling a transition from illustration work to fine art: “I wanted to stand on a clear open road,” Magee says, “so my thoughts could move down it without distraction.” This clarity is a powerful current running through Magee’s work, and its immediacy defies description. Magee’s language is a transparent, serene poetics of light and texture, next to which verbal and textual expression seem designed to obscure rather than to reveal. The precisely woven blushes and speckles of his tapestries transmit a gentle, meditative feeling, as if calmly ushering the viewer down Magee’s mental path toward enlightenment.
