2005-2006
Even in the 1960s, when still-life provided the focus of Greaves's work, he incorporated elements which thrust this most conventional of subjects into a more political arena. More recently, the war in Iraq has led to a massive dark triptych, War (2005-06).
Here the mood is bleaker, with fighting in the Middle East provoking engagement, rather than escapism. Greaves's largest painting of recent years, it is a powerful return to the mural format of his earliest paintings and a reprise of the triptych format of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Drawing from existing imagery, including an earlier screenprint of a bound figure, Greaves provides a brooding image of a menacing war machine, imprisonment and torture. The bold iconography and emblematic imagery speak for and of our times in a strong and distinct voice, a voice that is both individual and universal, classical and contemporary.
Literature
James Hyman, Derrick Greaves:From Kitchen Sink to Shangri-La, Lund Humphries, London 2007, p.166 (illustrated)