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Alongside the creative side to his character, he is also a pragmatist
and an opportunist. It is this combination that has enabled him, over
recent years, to develop and expand the faculty of Art and Design at
Liverpool, of which he is the head, at a time when many similar
departments in other British cities are being cut back or abolished
altogether. During this period he has also established a series of
thriving studios and workshops for struggling artists and designers in
the centre of Liverpool which is now the British Art and Design
Association, a registered charity. Through these activities, he has
been able to raise considerable support for the visual arts in
Liverpool by confidently asserting the value of experimentation,
creativity and craft within the community. This strength of character, allied to a restless creativity, constantly reasserts itself in his work as he plays with the visual language of modern art and reflects upon the social and spiritual sides of human nature. His art is daring. Time and again he appears on the verge of consolidating a fruitful and energetic period of production when, unsettled and unsatisfied with his work, he takes another shift in a new direction. There is also humour in his paintings and drawings, giving them a greater depth and range of expression. It is precisely the combination of pragmatist, observer and innovator that gives Terry Duffy's work its humanity. This exhibition comes at an important time in Duffy's artistic career. The last eighteen months appear to have brought about a synthesis. His varied output of the last 15 years begins to make sense as a whole body of work, rather than a series of disparate, unrelated exercises in visual language. His work now resonates, it no longer illustrates." |
