For my brother’s 21^st birthday, held in the Ilkley family home, I decorated the hallway with ten of his childhood art works, and three of his illustrated poems. (As a tribute, of sorts. Which would give the numerous family members crammed into the building something to talk about – beyond, of course, my new career in the shoe trade…) Beneath each piece, I created a “gallery-style” appraisal. An appreciative appraisal of this so-very-modern art. Crammed full of sweeping allusions to the appraisal-author’s intelligence, an over-use of large words, and a tendency to froth, silk-sow-purse-style.

From this, I have learned:

- it is possible to justify ANYTHING, in the art-world, as it is to read infinitesimally more into any piece than the artists themselves intended

- I have quite a way with high-falutin’ nonsense

- my brother, aged 5, preferred hotdogs to meringues.

Thusly:

TITLE: That Petrol Emotion

ARTIST: Daniel Adam (1981-)

DATE: Unknown

A strikingly symbolic piece, created from ink and crayon, and made forcefully two-dimensional – perhaps even three-dimensional – by Adam’s rejection of the rectangular canvas. The wild colour scheme is reminiscent of the Kerouac/Wolfe/Kesey travels across America (indeed, have been rumours – unsubstantiated - that this piece was painted during Adam’s LSD experimentation period), and certainly, the passengers on this bus are heading off on a psychedelic journey the likes of which the “Beat Generation” would have been proud.

The frenetic scribbling serves to give the piece a sense of urgency, while the jaggedly circular technique used to give colour to the wheels seems also to give them movement. Yet this work is just as much in the details as in the missing elements; the heads at the windows are just faces in a void, lost from their bodies, crayon, ethereal. It seems as though Adam is postulating that when the face is smiling, all other bodily details are merely incidental. That there are no visible doors is also significant; the passengers travel at the whim of an unseen driver. It is probable that Adam intended this work to be interpreted as the journey of life.

TITLE: A Machine For Living In

ARTIST: Daniel Adam (1981-)

DATE: Unknown

Superbly impactive neo-cubist realisation of the home, with a radically asymmetrical segmented sky.

TITLE: My Norman Soldier (Knight)

ARTIST: Daniel Adam (1981-)

DATE: Unknown

Unlike other artists constrained to one medium – oils, watercolours, etc. – Adam took a much more free-ranging approach, working with whatever materials felt right for the project in hand. In the creation of ‘My Norman Soldier (Knight)’, a combination of ink, felt and a densely woven cloth were used to bring to life the eponymous hero of the title. Using such materials, Adam is able to make an exquisite play on the idea of the soldier as war machine, with each piece emblematic of its wearer and his place in the world. The soldier’s tunic is vivid and coarse, and is quite literally ‘made of sterner stuff’ than his weaponry; the inked-in spear is barely one dimensional, while the shield, helmet and axe, in soft felt, seem almost flimsy. They are a stern reminder that the strength of a warrior lies within himself, rather than the weapons he wields.

Note also the Soldier’s lack of visible extremities – hands and feet are hidden, and even the face is obscured by chain-mail – this reduction of a man from a human being to a faceless drone, and our recognising him solely through his role within the community, can be read as damning juxtaposition with the preoccupations of our own society.

TITLE: a dragon

ARTIST: Daniel Adam (1981-)

DATE: Unknown

Deceptively simple water-colour re-telling of George’s slaying of the dragon, carefully belying the nobility of the “Saintly” actions. The central figure, is of course, the dragon, who, despite his size (cunningly conveyed through the fat sweeping brush-strokes) poses little threat, as the lower case of the title indicates; his scales are carefully rounded, his feet clawless, and his face set to a smile. Yet Adam juxtaposes this happy beast, flanked by the beaming sun, with a faceless foe, armed many times over. His hands appear as swords (predating Burton’s ‘Edward Scissorhands’ by a decade), and is poised to strike at the oblivious beast’s belly; a poignant reminder there can be no light without shadow.

TITLE: Ten ‘N’ Baum

ARTIST: Daniel Adam (1981-)

DATE: Unknown

Another piece in his trademark “faux-naïf” style. The dominance of the tree (and it’s lack of angel/starry crowning), the diminishment of Sinte Klaus, even the alien uniformity of the presents arrayed in parallel perpendicularity, are a searing comment on the ever-encroaching commercialism of this festival. (Yet with the appearance of the sun is there hope?) Surely this is Adam’s most lucid reinterpretation of the work of the Impressionists, cast in a 20^th Century retrogressive mould.

TITLE: Falling

ARTIST: Daniel Adam (1981-)

DATE: Unknown

One of Adam’s more naturalistic pieces. Skeletal leaf imprints, in the colours of the Union Jack, presented as ephemeral tracings almost wing like in their broken fragility. A uniquely (ironically?) patriotic depiction of Autumn in Britain.

TITLE: Inner Shell

ARTIST: Daniel Adam (1981-)

DATE: 1986

The hard lines, bold colours, asymmetric circles within squares, and strong corners are so strident and unforgiving, becoming almost sepulchral in their depiction of the robot man. It seems likely the figure was intended to stand as a plaintive symbol of the automaton within us all, our own ‘Inner Shell’. The cat’s-eyes-within-squares are a nice touch, a louche nod to a Pythagorean dystopia. Note how Adam has softened this apocalyptic vision by the creamy tones given to the bared craven teeth… and the mittens.

TITLE: Harbinger

ARTIST: Daniel Adam (1981-)

DATE: Unknown

The radicalisation of perspective in this piece is overwhelming; Adam was the first of his generation to reinvent depth perception in this deft manner. The way in which the stars – millions of light years away – seem as close to the viewer as the chimney, or the didactically titled bag of TOYS, is breathtaking in its insouciance. The elongated form of the Harbinger, and the way in which the eye is drawn to the belt buckle (the girdling of power) also belies Adam’s masterful control of his materials and subjects.

TITLE: The Magic Tree

ARTIST: Daniel Adam (1981-)

DATE: 1989

Inspired by a reading of a little known Blyton work. Note the assured juxtaposition of the stark Vishnu-like branches/arms – diseased or ripe with fruit? - with the smooth thick truck, whose inked-in chocolate waterfall surface is fiercely emblematic.

TITLE: I, Monster

ARTIST: Daniel Adam (1981-)

DATE: Unknown

Deceptively simple textile-based representation of the Gojira (Godzilla) figure, stunningly recontext-ualised out of the cityscape; a truly iconographic portrayal of a latter-day Lernean Hydra lost without its Herakles.

I was going to write something about the coffee table he made at school

(“part of Adam’s animal series, this four-legged oaken beast is entitled, simply, ‘Badger’”)

but, as it happened, we needed it as a table

Last revised: 28/04/02