19 January - 23 February 2008
35 Heddon Street, London W1
JP Munro’s ambitious new paintings reinterpret many of the myths and legends which were realised in the past by canonical artists such as Titian, Delacroix and Moreau. With their elaborate tableaux and epic overtones, Munro’s works replicate the ceremonial air of film posters. His palette here is darker and richer; while the works depict episodes that have taken place across various centuries and continents, they are aesthetically unified by tone. Based on Titian’s lost masterpiece The Battle of Spoleto, The Battle of Cadore fuses elements of his drawings with contemporaneous copies of the painting. The Temple of Solomon is evoked using symbols from freemasonry. Meanwhile, Heracles in the Garden of the Hesperides captures the moment before Heracles slays the serpent. The scene is possessed by a crystalline stillness, yet the viewer shares in the Hesperides’ wonder at what the hero will do next.