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murmurART

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Review Jul 28 2008 « | »
Carla Busuttil Yesterday we all went across town to Deptford to visit the painter Carla Busuttil in her new studio. We......

Donald Eastwood

Yesterday we all went across town to Deptford to visit the painter Carla Busuttil in her new studio. We first saw her paintings at the RA schools show last month, under the distracting preconception of knowing Saatchi had bought all thirteen of her displayed works, but left highly impressed.

Those we saw in show were thickly laid oil on canvas, portraits in flag-like colours using caricature and traditional african styles - flat rows of beady teeth and staring painted eyes. The subjects were infamous world figures - there was a fresh and shiny Berlesconi up in the studio when we arrived ("his face is like orange plastic"). He shared a studio wall with three postcard-sized painted sketches and several medal ribbons. On the other side were differently themed pictures, including a large canvas of a professional mourner hunching his heavy shoulders over a hidden face.

Saatchi-dom and the RA have drawn obvious attention, but her plans are admirably independant. She has never even spoken to Saatchi, and has passed the control of private galleries in favour of her own show, organised with a handful of creative friends, in November, for which she is already preparing.

"Why do you choose such negative subjects?" We asked finally. "They are more interesting," she replied, which is certainly true. Perhaps we are just a generation that likes hating.

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