The drawings of Bird and Vase Diptych (1971) are part of a small group of works produced by Greaves during this period. This is particularly prevalent in the physical execution of the paintings, which are produced with thinned acrylic.
In Derrick Greaves: From Kitchen-Sink to Shangri-La (Lund Humphries, 2007) James Hyman describes the compositional and stylistic elements of these drawings:
"The drawings Bird and Vase (1971) are concerned with movement and stasis and also with presence and absence. Are we shown a vase and a bird as the title suggests, or merely their shadows? For all the monumentality, what is depicted is a shadow rather than the bird itself and this encourages us to read the lipped vase as similarly lacking in substance. Complicating this is the relative substantiality of the charcoal ground, which has been so worked and scratched into that it has a greater materiality than the things depicted. Braque's bird had been let loose from the confining atelier, its flattened form well illustrating Greaves's rejection of modelling and the illusionistic creation of volume and weight. This would pave the way for the linearity and lightness of his later work with its interpenetration of forms and use of transparency." (p.108)
Provenance
History
Pop Classical: Derrick Greaves Paintings from the 70's, James Hyman Gallery, London, 30 March - 28 April 2006.
Literature
Derrick Greaves: The Pleasures of Drawing, James Hyman Gallery, London, 2005, (cat. 7), illustrated (un-numbered).
James Hyman, Derrick Greaves:From Kitchen Sink to Shangri-La, Lund Humphries, London, 2007, illustrated p.107 .