Homespun Cotton Textile c. 1937

This is Percival Jenner’s ‘Homespun Cotton Textile’. The artist seems to have been interested in process, in making, in the joy of applying paint to paper. The work is largely made up of little red shapes, interspersed with darker, almost floral markings. Each one is slightly different, slightly wonky, but that’s what makes them so compelling, so human! The red is neither matte nor glossy. The surface is flat, but also, when you get up close to it, you can see the texture of the paper, the way the pigment sits on the surface. It’s not trying to trick you into thinking it’s anything other than what it is – paint on paper! It reminds me of the work of Ree Morton, she had a similar kind of playful, process-led approach. When you look at art as an ongoing conversation, you start to see how one person’s work can speak to another’s, even across time and space. It’s more like an attitude, a way of thinking, than anything else.