Michael Simpson, David Roberts Art Foundation

In 1989, the English painter Michael Simpson (b.1940) began a new project: he started to make paintings of benches. Horizontal in form, as you can imagine, they measure on average between 12 and 14 feet in length (at times going up to 17 feet) and eight feet in height. These images evoke a horizontal body or, as in the later pieces where there are no legs, even a coffin. Painted very sparely and often with austere colour, usually with a single object to the bench’s side (e.g. a wreath, drape, plaque), they invite us to imagine sitting on them. But also, in their serenity, they convey a sense of contemplation itself. 

For example, Bench Painting no. 74, (2008-9), one of the four on view here, consists simply of a floating, black, coffin-like form, with the number “74” branded on it in white at one end. Draped across this shape is a yellowish, bunched up fabric. Not only resembling a funereal object, there is sense of emptiness and, thus, longing. 

These paintings were inspired by Giordano Bruno, a medieval Neapolitan philosopher-priest who propagated an unconventional cosmological view – taking a step further than Copernicus – and was tortured for eight years before being put to death. Hence, for Simpson these works act as a kind of Vanitas painting – a 17th century Dutch still-life genre that considers mortality and death. If you think a bench is an unlikely object for contemplating death then take note of those little memorialising plaques on some benches next time you take a breather to view the landscape. 

This exhibition is part of the David Roberts Art Foundation's Study series, which takes a look at individual artists from the David Roberts Collection through an ongoing programme of exhibitions. Since 2012 subjects have included Victor Man, Carole Bove, Bruce McLean, Martin Boyce and Boyle Family. Catch Michael Simpson until 24 May.