Simon Burton: Nowhere Men

Hermits, and the whole subject of social obsolescence is the theme of British artist Simon Burton’s latest paintings, to be shown in a major solo exhibition Nowhere Men at Arch 402 Gallery this autumn.

The fifteen paintings in Nowhere Men are inhabited by a series of hermit-like characters, both contemporary and historical. A modern-day angler, for example, stands nonchalant and bewildered. The violence involved in making his catch, is presented as an act of disengagement from his natural environment. His solitude depicted as an embodiment of social isolation.

“The idea of the hermit’s life – simplicity, solitude, a closeness to nature - lurks somewhere on the periphery of most people’s consciousness. We have a strong desire to escape reality and to open up other realms. I like the idea that a man fishing can haul out elements of existence that are not otherwise seen nor experienced and which can be easily thrown back in and lost again” Simon Burton



Six paintings in the new series concentrate on the famous 17th century hermit John Bigg of Dinton. Burton visited the Ashmolean, Oxford to research Bigg who was reputed to have been Charles I executioner. It was the museum’s display of Bigg’s boot that impressed the artist most. Bigg lived a cave and had repaired and patched his only pair of boots together for over thirty years. The result makes for a frightening display piece. Burton’s portraits of Bigg are made on canvases made by stitching together the remnants of old paintings as a direct reference to this.

Reforming and reclamation are recurrent themes in Burton’s work. The physical element of recycling, he feels, is a reflection of the place Art inhabits in today’s world. Whereas modernism rejected its artistic heritage, 21st century painting draws on its history to define itself. Burton has said ‘this is an act something like inhabiting a derelict house’.

Burton’s new paintings make us question how we connect to nature and to each other in today’s world and, at the same time, look at the place of painting right now. The atmosphere is uncertain; they drag us back into something ancient and void and pull us forward into the unknown.