Mortuary

Born in Derbyshire in 1965, Robert Priseman studied photography and graphic design before reading Aesthetics and Art Theory at the University of Essex. Whilst working as a book designer, Priseman developed a successful career painting commissioned portraits in oils. In 2003, Priseman gave up commission work, turning to depictions of unpopulated landscapes, and interior spaces.

‘In 2004 I set out to paint a series of pictures on hospital spaces… In painting, I like to work on a large scale and make use of perspective to enable the viewer to gain a sense of being able to step into the room presented. I am interested in looking at the overlooked, and as this series developed, began to explore that which we may not wish to look at, at all. I became interested in rooms which are designed to perform their function with a matter of factness which overrides our emotional concerns.

In the [‘Hospital’ series], people are absent. The rooms are laid out ready to use. All signs, labels and regional references have been removed. The colours have been softened and harmonised. There are no views to the outside world and all the light is artificial. Life in these spaces is transitional. … I am fascinated by the sense that some of our most extreme emotional experiences are encountered in the most sterile and emotionless places.

In removing details from the scenes I aim to create a sense of a world like the real one, but one that is of the imagination. A parallel world that exists in the mind’s eye.’

Robert Priseman quoted in ‘The Hospital series’, ‘Hospital: Paintings by Robert Priseman’, Seabrook Press 2009, pg.35