There's a painting in this new collection by George Underwood entitled 'Dream'. It depicts a half-asleep woman in profile wearing an extravagant head dress. But look again. That's no head dress. It's an eagle, sleeping and perfectly peaceful on top of her head. It raises the question: who's dream are we talking about here?
The painting is classic George Underwood. Beautiful, accessible, and utterly fantastical. It competes for your attention with other gems from the new series. There's ‘Out of Sight’ with its sky and sea full of human eyes. Or how about 'Easy Going' in which a knight sits on the back of what appears to be the progeny of a zebra and a giraffe.
It's all as delirious and entertaining as we've come to expect from George, who has been developing his talents since the late 60s. George was a lifelong friend of David Bowie, and experimented with music before focusing on art. He achieved a degree of fame as an illustrator of books and album covers before turning to fine art. Initially George drew inspiration from the Fantastic Realism of Ernst Fuchs, Rudolph Hausner and Eric Brauer, and he used their example as the springboard to create his unique universe. The effect is transforming. As David Bowie wrote in 2014: ‘It’s uncanny how George's images inhabit their own world so completely. He breathes an icy life force into them."
