Description
British artist Richard Nott (1963-2025) was known for his sculptural paintings, densely built through protracted processes of accretion and exposure. Rejecting traditional painting materials in favour of industrial materials such as bitumen, resin and emulsion, Nott approached the work as something to be veiled or unearthed rather than something to be depicted. His process was painstaking and highly physical, building up layers of material before burning, scraping or gouging them away to reveal the traces left behind; the vestiges of the work’s own becoming.
Richard Nott: Vestige is the first book on the artist to be published following his death in August 2025, acting as both a documentation and a celebration of Nott’s life and work. It brings together a substantial range of artwork and archival imagery alongside a critical essay by Tess Charnley and a foreword by Joseph Clarke. The book’s publication will coincide with a solo exhibition of Nott’s final works at Anima Mundi, St Ives.
Author biography
Tess Charnley is a writer and curator based between Cornwall and London. Her writing has been published across leading art publications including Elephant Magazine, Burlington Contemporary, Art Monthly, this is tomorrow, Ocula and the peer-reviewed journal Anthropocenes – Human, Inhuman, Posthuman. She was also a contributor to Prime: Art’s Next Generation, published by Phaidon.
