Syd Barrett - Art and Letters- Short Review

I went along to this the other day.

http://gallery.ideageneration.co.uk/newsitems/267/view

There is some sort of morbid fascination with Syd Barrett. He's the overly celebrated cliche of the eccentric rock star. He was the man whose career was infamously short lived, due to mental illness. In some circles, it's as if this was something to be championed, rather than be troubled by.

So it was with a certain amount of caution I approached this exhibition, concerned that the theme would be overly macabre, attempting to find evidences of a mental breakdown painted onto canvas.

I was relieved then to discover that there was little focus on the more disturbing elements that have been well documented about Syd's life. Rather, the exhibition is a series of drawings and paintings, which bare little resemblance to one another. Some showed him to simply be what he was, a moderately talented artist, who used inanimate objects, tending to focus on any unusual qualities they may have, and bring this to the forefront of his paintings.

As you might expect, some of the more visually arresting work from Syd's collection of paintings come from the height of his creative prowess, around the time of the formation of Pink Floyd. The most provocative piece, interestingly, is from his childhood. A painting of a circus in full swing, all angry lions and fireworks, and a face of an anonymous figure, remaining indifferent to the surrounding chaos, are pleasingly led to the observer's interpretation about whether this could be seen as a  revelation of his psyche. It is marked only by a reference to where he was, and how old he was when it was painted. (Thirteen, i think.)

From faded watercolours of countryside cottages, done in the more reclusive years of his life, to the rather more psychedelically influenced pieces that you would consider it likely to find in a exhibition of his work, there is little reference to his mental state, more a demonstration of the man's considerable potential, both in music and art, which was unfortunately short-lived.

However, the letters section was less about Syd's talents and felt a little more intrusive. A series of correspondences with old girlfriends gave little insight into what it was what that made him such a revered talent. Personally worded, in tiny handwriting, they demonstrate how strongly he felt for the people around him, and although rather endearing in places, you can't help but feel overwhelmed by the sense that they were not meant to be gawped at in a public gallery.

Crude sketches, and seemingly detached thoughts run throughout these letters, and suggest a rather private and introverted character, but these are things that are already synonymous with the man, and little is to be gained by searching for proof of it.

However, it's nice to be taken back to a world before the age of technology, where people actually wrote letters to one another, rather than babbling away inanely via text messaging and social networking sites.

Upstairs, there are some rather excellent, intimate black and white photos of Syd and Pink Floyd's beginnings.

Overall, for anyone interested in Syd's work, the exhibition is certainly worth a visit.