Overview
Following from the success of Scratching the surface, joining the dots which served as a response to the Leveson and Chilcot inquiries. John Keane's new series Fear sees his attention turned to the Moscow show trials that took place during the great Stalinist terror of the 1930's.
Keane uses source material obtained both from documentary film grabs of the trials and mug shots of the accused. These large-scale works emanate a dark and eerie menace. At this time no one, from the top of the Bolshevik hierarchy to the humble factory worker, was safe from denunciation as either saboteur or political deviant. In remembrance, these paintings resurrect the core emotion of those on trial. They seek to tease out the essence of the most fundamental driver of human reaction, usually found at the root of all violence - fear.
