Artist at the threshold

This body of work was described by art critic Dr Gerhard Schoeman as “deceptively simple”, being comprised of “small objects made up of bands and strips of monochromatic colour.”

In his artist statement, Burnett quoted Robert Stone’s Damascus Gate to shed light on the exhibition:

“To the Palestinians it was the Bab al-Amud, the Gate of the Column, but Lucas rejoiced in the common English name, the suggestion of a route toward mystery, interior light, sudden transformation. He sat for a while over a Sprite, taking in the sensations of the gate, and then set out quixotically in search of something stronger.”

Schoeman said the canvasses witheld any sense of narrative and avoided making statements.

“They are inward turned, self-absorbed carriers of nothing more than paint, the very materiality of which is the only subject matter,” he said.

“The paintings are internally coherent, even or especially when the paint exceeds and coagulates at the edges of the canvas. Every part relates to every other part — composition is everything.”

Schoeman added that the “elegantly brittle” paintings held together “like skin”, and that it could be felt that every mark, bruise, smear, stain and incision made sense.

“These are products of concentrated thinking and intentionality, but also of blind feeling in the dark. One can sense the painter’s painstaking consideration in every cut, furrow, groove, line, thickly-loaded brushstroke and erasure, while every decision derives from doubt,” he said.

In Schoeman’s eyes, the simplicity of Burnett’s works offered some commentary on contemporary art in South Africa.

“Here there are no declarations about the politics of identity, which motivates so much contemporary South African art ad nauseam. There is no tedious, superficial babbling about the role of art in society; the completely pretentious idea that art can make a difference to actual suffering,” he said.

He described the notion that art ought to be an “exercise in academic, sociological and psychological posturing” was dubious, and one that Burnett had not bought into.

“The paintings are nothing more than paintings; the remainders of hours of solitary labour and craft, and it is precisely this that gives them presentness — grace revealed in exile, absconding, loss and longing,” concluded Schoeman.

Damascus Gate will run from 17 May until 7 June at Gallery 2, 140 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood.

Details: 011 447 0155; www.gallery2.co.za