After posting the triptych 'Snowstorm Flower' yesterday, I was asked by one of my faithful followers (you know you are; I won't name and shame) 'if a group of three paintings is a triptych, what's a group of four paintings called?' Well, not only do I have the answer, I have an example. A group of four paintings is most often called 'a group of four paintings', but there is a technical term: a tetraptych. The tetraptych (it just sounds so pretentious, doesn't it?) I have to illustrate this is a four-part painting I did a couple of years back called 'Living Room Window'. Here's a quick preliminary sketch/colour study I did in oil pastels for it:
Here's the actual piece, painted on four box canvases in acrylic:
As you can see, the way they're grouped leads to the title. The intention is that it creates the illusion of a view out of a window. There's an irony to the title, as well, as not many of us are lucky enough to have a view like this out of our living room windows.
Anyway, I hope that clears things up.
Here's the actual piece, painted on four box canvases in acrylic:
As you can see, the way they're grouped leads to the title. The intention is that it creates the illusion of a view out of a window. There's an irony to the title, as well, as not many of us are lucky enough to have a view like this out of our living room windows.Anyway, I hope that clears things up.
2 comments:
That seems fairly logical, what with a series of four narrative pieces called a "Tetralogy".
And not, as most people believe, a "Quadrilogy", which was a word made up by 20th Century Fox to market the Aliens movies.
I bet it's not long before 'quadrilogy' makes it into the dictionary, though, as a valid alternative.
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