Roy Johnston

Belfast, Council of Irish Tradition, Old Library Gallery, Queen's University, Duchas, 1968, no.33;
Dublin, David Hendriks Gallery, Irish Exhibition of Living Art, 1968, no.89;
Belfast, Arts Council Gallery, Roy Johnston, 1971, no.1;
Dublin, Davis Gallery, Roy Johnston, 1972, no.2;
Belfast, Arts Council Gallery, Roy Johnston, 1985, with tour to Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, no.10, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue.
 

Executed in 1968, System is an important early work that was the first in a series of 'hard edge' paintings completed by the artist between 1968-70. In contrast to his expressive landscapes from the mid 1960s such as Longitudinal Form (1967, Private Collection), the series highlighted the artist's new preoccupation with perceptual illusion and visual ambiguity.

In the present work, the illusion of a three dimensional grid has been emphasized through the irregular shape of the canvas along the top edge and the use of complimentary colours (red/green, blue/orange). The architectonic structure of System is also prophetic of the artist's use of shallow three dimensional box-like units, frequently organized in a grid format, which became a leitmotif of the artist's style between 1970-79, evident in works such as Beneath 27/B (1972, Coll. Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin).