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Born 1959 in London, UK
I’ve started to try and analyse what it is that Steve has got and what makes him tick, to try and stand back objectively. How do you describe his output and how should one (should one?) categorise him? To me his work is timeless yet not traditional. It seems rooted somewhere in the 20th century yet his approach to portraiture is so pioneering with its diverse use of material and texture. The portraits have an inherent quality that seems aged or matured, a kind of patina. They are ugly beautiful, often a little scary. Like so many artists, death, skulls and war fascinate him. So much of his work refers to his grandmother long since gone. The Nan Heads remind me of death masks but they are not morbid, they are encomiums in honour of her and what she did for him, reading stories for hours and showing him how to paint…
I tend to forget that he is a portrait painter, and tend to think of portraits as a whole as less than exciting, having been conditioned against them (perhaps unknowingly) by everything else going on it contemporary art. Nothing leaves me colder than the idea of portrait painting on a ‘competent’ level. Instead, with Steve I think of lead soldiers, Swat Valley carving, devils, Jesus, Spanish frames, cowboy films, Mexican wrestling, Van Gogh, Bonnard, Munch, Picasso, Basquiat, Goya, Grosz, Kirchner, Roualt, Anne Frank’s diary, war, fear, colour, bronze, silver, bread, dolls... Put them in a blender and apply.
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 Steve Goddard, Nan Head, Le Dauphin, 2009, 96 x 74 inches, mixed media |
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 Steve Goddard, Untitled (mask), 2009, 19 x 12 inches, mixed media |
