Ian Grant

Tronie

17 April - 22 May 2016

The works emanate from the notion of 'tronie', a 17th Century Dutch term categorising paintings of human images, usually head and shoulders and often showing a specific activity, such as smoking, but not necessarily so. They offered a potentially open narrative for the viewer without connection to the specific subject identity - and the tronie concept was often extended to images of still-life or even landscape. Well-known examples would include Vermeer's 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' and 'Girl in a Red Hat'.

The genre continued into contemporary practice through most Modernist movements, to photography with the likes of Maplethorpe and Arbus, and even on to social media. Grant enjoys the notion’s capacity to evoke and suggest beyond specifics.