The Movies 1975

Robert Peak made this image "The Movies" with what looks like a collage of gouache and pencil. The composition is wild, a cascade of figures tumbling over each other! The texture here is smooth; Peak's blended his colors, especially in the central female figure, so that you can barely see the brushwork. But then there are the pencil lines that jump forward, defining the different elements. Look at the hand in the foreground, laden with rings. There's a tension there between the flat shapes and the illusion of depth, between the fine lines and the blurred edges. I like to think about Picasso and the way he played with the surface of the canvas. Peak reminds me a little bit of David Hockney; both were masterful draughtsman, and both had a flair for capturing the look and feel of their times. In art, there are no final answers, only ongoing dialogues!