Tremble/Intrigue

Subtle and quiet in its presence, Tremble/Intrigue is a large-scale work from 1992 by British artist Alex Landrum is a meditation on colour and language, visual and linguistic signification in contemporary culture. Using Dulux household paints on top of layers of eggshell on canvas, Landrum's paintings have a distinctly minimalist aesthetic, with only the faint outline of cut-out letters beneath the paint surface interrupting its smooth, matte appearance. In the present lot, the words 'TREMBLE' and 'INTRIGUE' are repeated over two canvases, a diptych whose title corresponds to the very Dulux colour used to create it. Oscillating between two schools of thought, the modernist belief that colour can inspire spiritual regeneration and the recent contemporary recognition that even colour can be corrupted by language, Tremble/Intrigue is a paradoxical object, demonstrating the discrepancy in these concepts as well as accommodating both ideas within its form.