Don Quixote
Paul Newman
Don Quixote, 2020
Acrylic on canvas
140 x 200 cm
Signed and dated verso
Exhibited: Reflections, Aleph Contemporary, curated by Rosa JH Berland
In Don Quixote, Paul Newman reimagines Cervantes’ iconic figure through a fragmented, kaleidoscopic lens, placing the errant knight in a richly layered and unstable landscape. Part myth, part hallucination, the composition fuses painterly abstraction with comic illustration, folklore, and post-industrial motifs. The skeletal steed, armored with patchwork patterns, leans into a surreal terrain where turbines, cooling towers, and cartoonish clouds coexist with ruins and rivers.
The titular figure, tilted dramatically with lance in hand and top hat askew, emerges as a disoriented traveller—one who navigates a world of fractured realities and symbolic overload. Rendered in vibrant, almost chaotic colour blocks and textured brushwork, the painting invites interpretation as both satirical and sincere, poking at the persistence of idealism amid societal collapse and environmental degradation.
Don Quixote is a quintessential Newman work—imbued with theatricality, irony, and layered symbolism. It continues his exploration of British surrealism, psychogeography, and the enduring relevance of historical archetypes in a digitally fractured, post-truth age.
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Rebecca Meanly
Abstract Paintings