PRESS, TEXTS

Anna Kirkpatrick : Mystery and bits of cloth

Artist for already thirty years, Anna Kirkpatrick left the United States in 1988 prompted by a desire to live in Provence--the land of Van Gogh, Cézanne and Bonnard.  After seven years in Aix, and in want of a cooler climate, she found the old quarters of Autun an ideal place for the development of her interior life and artistic path.  The spiritual charge of the Cathedral, the poetry of the medieval quarter and its traces of history inspire, nourish and put her mind at ease. “My hermit side is happy here.” The organization of the XIV c. building which serves as her base strongly reflects the personality and work of this solitary artist who lives and works here in the company of Max, the juvenile delinquent, and Fanny, the elderly lady--both Boston Terriers:  in progress under the roof:  the construction of her “ideal studio”; below, the collage studio, a higgledy-piggledy disorder of used cloth and paper destined for a second life; downstairs a workshop for framing.  And everywhere monochromes of delicate tints, facades or rooftops evolving continually toward greater stripping down, interiority, abstraction and purity… between mastery of technique and meditation, “the creation of a work is the creation of a world” (Kandinsky).  Anna’s, from now on, is enduringly rooted in Autun.