Jonathan Wateridge

_Uncertain Swimmer_ is the second monograph on the work of British artist Jonathan Wateridge (b. 1972, Lusaka, Zambia), presenting around eighty paintings and works on paper made between 2019 and 2022\. Following on from the bodies of work Enclave and Expatria (2016–18), _Uncertain Swimmer_ develops the artist’s interest in modes of representation and the legacies of twentieth-century modernist painting through a visual and social exploration of the motif of the pool, depicting swimmers and sunbathers, often by night. Far from being an escapist environment of aspiration and privilege, Wateridge imbues the pool with a disquieting atmosphere, creating a cumulative feeling of unease and ennui among those present, now seemingly unsure of their world. The publication charts a marked evolution in the artist’s style from the realism of his earlier paintings with complex multi-figure compositions to more solitary, gestural and expressive works. His masterly application of paint takes new forms in the beautiful, curious and often haunting paintings and works on paper showcased here. Art historian and curator Marco Livingstone’s essay considers the change from Wateridge’s naturalistic paintings to the flattened, reduced shapes, forms and lines of the modernism- and abstraction-infused pieces he is making today. Francis Bacon, Edvard Munch and Paul Cézanne are among numerous art historical influences cited by Livingstone, who ruminates on the identity of the people in Wateridge’s portraits and the mercurial spaces they occupy, examining how Wateridge’s current critical preoccupations have transitioned from the autobiographical to more formal concerns. In the featured conversation between Wateridge and fellow painter Caroline Walker, the two artists discuss their overlapping experiences studying painting at Glasgow, as well as Wateridge’s fourteen-year break from painting until 2005\. He eventually returned to the medium when he realised it excited him more than anything else. Wateridge elaborates on his fascinating painting process, staging shoots in studios with hired actors and using elements from the photographs in the paintings, often over a period of years. On his canvases, he will scrape back the paint and reapply it, frequently taking pictures of the paintings in their various stages; he will then print the photographs and draw over them to continue working out what he will do with the final paintings. For Wateridge, a painting works when it stops failing, and he embraces unforeseen conclusions. Jonathan Wateridge has recently exhibited with the Hayward Gallery, London; Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles, New York and Brussels; TJ Boulting, London; Galerie Haas, Zurich; Pace Gallery and HENI, London. Wateridge's art is in the collections of institutions worldwide, including Aïshti Foundation, Lebanon; Pinault Foundation, Venice; the Saatchi Collection, London; the Rennie Collection, Vancouver; and Simmons & Simmons, London. He has been featured in publications such as _The Sunday Times, The Independent, Fad Magazine, Artforum_ and _Artnet_. Wateridge is represented by Nino Mier Gallery.

Jonathan Wateridge was born in Lusaka, Zambia, in 1972. Today he lives and works in Norfolk, UK. This, the artist’s first trade monograph, presents two significant bodies of work, ‘Enclave’ and ‘Expatria’. In these series, Wateridge returns to his childhood memories of growing up within the privileged white ex-pat communities of Zambia in the 1970s and 1980s, during the early years of the country’s independence from British rule. ‘Having grown up in an apparent world of sunshine and suburban pools, I sought to overlap those aspects of my formative experiences with the wider issues of the West’s post-colonial role,’ Wateridge has stated. His recent paintings, produced with the artist’s characteristic virtuosity and based on elaborate studio stage sets replete with a varied cast of actors, also seek to explore more lyrical figurative languages offered by the medium, adding to the uneasy dynamics that haunt these memorable and accomplished works.This hardback monograph, designed by Peter B. Willberg, has been edited and authored by London-based independent curator, writer and art consultant Mark Sanders. The publication features an essay by Dr Gilda Williams, a London correspondent for Artforum who also teaches art writing on the MFA Curating programme at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Presenting over 130 paintings and details, this 200-page monograph is essential reading for anybody passionate about contemporary painting, and makes a valuable contribution to discussion of the post-colonial condition in the visual arts.