Malcolm Morley's Military Fantasies at Sperone Westwater

Malcolm Morley presents new paintings and installations at Sperone Westwater from April 18 to June 6, 2015. The Turner Prize-winning artist explores military history through vintage paper airplane models, blending abstraction, photorealism, and Expressionism across six decades. His childhood trauma of fleeing his London home during World War II bombing informs these works, where fighter planes, battleships, and cannons engage in nonsensical battles from a child's perspective. Techniques show expressionist brushwork with loosened grids and abstracted surfaces, as seen in 'Freighter with Primary Colors and B2 Bombers' (2013) with textured paint applications suggesting waves and bombs. 'Dakota' (2015) mixes historical implausibilities like Viking ships and German fighter planes on a cobalt green field. Mixed media installations include 'The Searchers' (2014) with hand-decorated model planes attached to paintings to cast shadows, and 'Napoleon Crossing the Alps with Cannon' (2014) featuring a paper-and-encaustic cannon aimed at a portrait of Napoleon based on Jacques-Louis David's painting. A monograph accompanies the exhibition, highlighting Morley's critique of militarism through illusionist reliefs that blend fact and fiction, creating theatrical narratives.