Charles J Shovlin

Charles J. Shovlin is an artist recognized for his conceptual work that engages with the iconic Fontana Modern Masters series of books. His artistic practice involves reinterpreting the distinctive cover art of these influential publications. Shovlin's approach often involves a process of reproduction and transformation, highlighting the original design elements while introducing his own conceptual framework.

His work has notably included a series where he reproduced the covers of the Fontana Modern Masters as flawed paintings, with titles obscured and colors blurred, using watercolor and ink. This project also involved him identifying and creating art for 'lost' or unpublished titles from the series, aiming to conceptually complete the collection. More recently, Shovlin has created larger acrylic paintings based on the series' color palettes and scoring systems, further exploring the intersection of art, literature, and publishing history.

Charles J. Shovlin has developed a significant body of work centered on the Fontana Modern Masters series, a collection of pocket guides on influential 20th-century thinkers. His artistic engagement with this series is not about the content of the books themselves, but rather their visual presentation and the history of their design. Shovlin's art often involves a process of re-creation and conceptual commentary on the original cover art, which was itself a notable aspect of the series' identity. He has explored the series through various media, including painting and ink on paper, and has also created larger acrylic works.

A key aspect of Shovlin's work is his series of paintings that reproduce the Fontana Modern Masters covers, characterized by deliberate imperfections such as missing titles and run colors. This artistic act serves to draw attention to the aesthetic qualities of the original designs. Furthermore, Shovlin extended this project by identifying and creating artwork for ten titles that were listed as forthcoming but never published. By devising his own 'Fontana Colour Chart' and a flawed scoring system, he sought to conceptually 'complete' the series, adding a layer of meta-commentary on artistic intention and the nature of collections.

Shovlin's exploration of the Fontana Modern Masters continued with larger-scale works. He created a new series of substantial acrylic paintings, each measuring 210 x 130 cm, which further utilized a scoring system and a 'Colour Wheel' derived from the original series. These works, executed in 2011-12, included variations on both published and previously unpublished titles, expanding his artistic dialogue with the series. Notably, his work has sometimes overlooked figures from the visual arts, a point he has acknowledged in relation to his conceptual framework for the series.