John J. Wagner Family Portrait c. 1940

Archie Thompson’s painting of the John J. Wagner Family is just fascinating, especially the way he builds up his figures with layers of thin paint. It's like he's feeling his way through the forms, searching for their essence. Look at the dad there on the left. He’s holding a copy of the local paper, The Citizen. Thompson’s worked and reworked the form of his suit and his face, building up this amazing texture. The painting has a kind of opacity to it, a real weight of feeling, but the brushwork is still loose and visible. The whole painting reminds me a little of Bob Thompson - no relation I don’t think! - another artist who was fascinated by groups of figures and who used really simplified forms to get at something essential. But Archie Thompson's work has its own distinctive sensibility. It invites us to slow down, to question what we think we know about seeing and representing the world. It's a testament to the power of art to embrace ambiguity and spark our imagination.