GREATBOXERS:

George Spencer’s depictions of boxers belong to an old tradition of painting fighters in action. However, the aestitics in Greatboxers is the stillness of readiness or aftermath. In these frontal portraits, upward-facing gloves dominate the picture space, simultaneously shielding the body and occupying the most central and significant area of the canvas. Gloves, faces, body fill the paintings with an ambiguity that could indicate triumph or defeat. The lines of paint, dripping in long verticalities and downward trajectory, are reminiscent of traces of blood or sweat. The excess of paint and the volatility of brushstrokes reveal a superfluity of movement but also a stillness containing the fighter’s readiness for combat or retreat. The frame confines these dialectic forces of life, beauty, death and form. - Rawi| Hage