Basil King
BIRD SCRIPT
February 25 - March 30, 2017

Basil King, PERCH, mixed media on canvas, 33" x 47", 2016

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“King's syncretic aesthetics have been shaped by his early childhood in WWII London, friendship with poets of the San Francisco Renaissance, apprenticeship to Abstract Expressionist painters Adolph Gottlieb, Robert Motherwell, in New York, and by his mentors and friends at Black Mountain College, including Robert Creeley, Charles Olson, and John Wieners. “  MIRAGE website

Basil King, one of the last working graduates of Black Mountain College, had two exhibitions in the autumn of 2015 of his work; one at the Black Mountain College and Arts Center in Asheville, N.C. and  the other at St. Andrew’s University in Laurinburg, N.C.

BIRD SCRIPT references not only a style of Chinese characters that was popular circa 500 to 700 B.C. but also to a contemporary font that is characterized by ‘quickness, lightness and speed of movement’ (Wikipedia) which is suggested in this series of paintings and drawings, all of birds and marked by their lyricism and tenderness.

Basil King. PIGEON 2, 12 x 9", 2016

Basil King. PIGEON 7, 13 x 23", 2016

Basil King, COUSIN GREEN - THE FAMILY. 43 x 60", 2016