Kevin Charles Burrows
This Side and That
Acrylic on canvas, signed and dated ‘1973’ on verso
Image size: 17 1/4 x 11 1/2 inches (44 x 29.5 cm)
Contemporary-style frame
Exhibitions
Exhibition label ‘Royal Academy Exhibition 1973’ on verso.
Kevin Burrows
Kevin Burrows was born in 1947 in Hoylake, Cheshire. He studied at Southend School of Art, 1973-6, and at Winchester School of Art, 1976-9.
Here Burrows stands facing the mirror, with half of his face intriguingly being reflected back. Although an obvious reference to the historical use of mirrors by artists in the practice of self-portraiture, the drastic visual dissection of the Burrows hints at something more. With half his face reflected normally, part of Burrows remains hidden and the mirror’s edge also presents in the middle of the canvas a distorted slither of the artist’s head and body. These three versions of Burrows suggests a self-reflective phycological commentary with the work depicting a fractured compartmentalisation of self.
On the shelf below are a range of personal objects of the artist including a familiar self-portrait trope – a reproduction of one of his own artworks that he admires.