The title of Lys Hansen's latest exhibition, When You Reach September, is drawn from the mid-20th century American classic September Song, composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Maxwell Anderson.
The theme of time passing is an evergreen one when it comes to all art, but this song has captured the imagination of many major recording stars, including Maurice Chevalier, Lou Reed, Willie Nelson, Andy Williams, Bryan Ferry and Ian McCulloch of Echo And The Bunnymen, to name but a few.
Falkirk-born, with Danish parentage, Hansen has a formidable reputation as an artist of searing expressionistic honesty. Her art is crammed with varying states of joy, pain, fear, loathing and despair which the viewer never fails to be affected by.
Scots Makar Liz Lochhead has even written a poem dedicated to her, called Warpaint And Womanflesh, which ends with the lines:
"Because of everything but the kitchen sink
Lys Hansen must always be painting."
As a backdrop to this exhibition, Hansen has homed in on four lines of September Song:
"But it's a long, long while
From May to December
And the days grow short
When you reach September."
This is partly in recognition of the exhibition's timing, and partly because the work is being shown in what could be viewed as Hansen's own life's September period.
A prolific and passionate artist, here she presents a body of work consisting of large, vibrant canvases, small cabinet paintings from a project in Villeneuve d'Ascq in the north of France, and drawings produced over many periods spent in Berlin, the entire suite of which is shortly to be published in book form with accompanying essays.
There are also painted wood pieces and a selection of work made on the Danish island of Bornholm. This is work by a mature artist at the peak of her powers which deserves to be savoured, like a fine wine.
Lys Hansen: When You Reach September, Kinblethmont Gallery, Arbroath (01241 830 756, www.kinblethmontgallery.co.uk and www.lyshansen.co.uk) until September 16.
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