The Epistle according to Saint Anthony – Artspost

Saint Anthony, Portuguese Catholic friar of the Franciscan order, was said to have preached to the fish after being given the cold shoulder by a bunch of heretics back in the 13th century. Shoals of them were reputed to have gathered at the mouth of a river in Portugal to hear the saint preach his message, probably on the life and times of Christ.

There were also crowds at the opening of Anthony Davies exhibition at Artspost, ready to hear another sermon, this time in visual linocut form.

The address Davies specializes in is socio-political commentary, but among the polemical matters, both national and international, from Tiwai smelter to the boat people, there were sprinkled direct references to things Saint Anthony himself would have been familiar with.

In, Entry of Christ (5) a dead Jesus is carried aloft on the cross above the heads of a contemporary audience, some suffering, others taking selfies. Davies is calling on an old established tradition here, the iconic sufferer, to leaven his commentary. Many of his works deal with people who themselves suffer from various privations and injustices.

Good Friday, Bad Saturday, sees a media frenzy of cameras and microphones against the backdrop of a cross emblazoned with the Jewish star. Are the media, here, the new heretics concerned only to capture a sensational photo op and boost ratings in a competitive commercial business?

The work, Adam and Eve (X1V), gives us the conventional religious imagery – man, woman, tree, snake, but this is placed inside a modern urban setting including a Gothic cathedral. However, off to the side, two onlookers seem excluded from this idyllic paradise setting.

This is Davies raison d'etre. The underdog, the marginalized, the excluded sufferer is the sermon brought to us in 16 large lino prints that complete the show. The linocuts themselves are deftly handled, the delineation of figure confidently managed while the crowded compositions are full of energy and verve. Against that, the minimalist use of colour creates a satisfying counterpoint and with that the homily in gouache is done.

Matisse once said that the job of any painting was to make the viewer relax and feel comfortable, like resting back into a cosy armchair. By contrast, Duchamp claimed that art that didn't shock wasn't worth making.

The work of Anthony Davies falls somewhere between these two antithetical agendas.

The artistry in these linocuts is an aesthetic delight, something to please the senses, while the message in these "epistles" is closer to what Duchamp would applaud.

The artist has deliberately made play with the name and status of Saint Anthony (a Franciscan friar), in the show's title, to indicate the serious intent of the work – socio-political in their thematic concerns, examining both national and international issues that demand a response from the viewer. From the Tiwai Smelter to the boat people, Davies canvases current problems, sometimes invoking biblical allusions – the Garden of Eden and the Crucifixion, to underscore his point.

Contemporary topics thus jostle with ancient history and mythology here in this series in order to explore the perennial dilemma of human suffering.
Bombs drop, people struggle, a metropolis is turned into a wasteland.

Popular culture and the media also makes an appearance as the artist tries to make sense of a world that includes everything from SpongeBob Square Pants to the selfie obsession.