Allegorical Art

Renowned art critic Edward Lucie-Smith was also an staunch admirer of Ffyffe’s offerings and wrote the following in the preface of the 2004 exhibition booklet: “They are an increasingly confident exploration of the artist’s inner self – full of pain sometimes, often coloured with cynicism and irony, but also full of joy.” 

In many of these paintings, Ffyffe portrayed himself as either the fool or the alchemist.  

In the Southern Cross newspaper published November 29, 1995, Ffyffe is quoted as saying “Society perceives artists as foolish, as art has no practical purpose. But in order to create, the artist needs the consciousness of a fool or to be innocent.”

The backdrop to the theme may have roots in Ffyffe’s relationship with his father who remained cynical of his son’s artistic vocation, and Fyffe’s own realisation that for all intents and purposes, very few people recognised and placed any value on the works of a modern figurative artist. 

As Ffyffe said, “The world had moved on from the tradition of oil on canvas painting; film, music and computer-generated images coupled with the post-modernist affirmation that ‘Art was anything that we might decide it to be’ had become the modern mantra. You would be a fool indeed!”

But what was the role of the fool in society? The Court Jester was the joker and prankster of the medieval court. His job was to entertain and provide comic relief to the court. Yet he could speak truth to power where others must hold their tongue.

The artist is also an alchemist. In medieval society, alchemists were early practitioners of metallurgy and chemistry and had, as their holy grail, the quest to turn base metals into gold.  The artist’s aspiration is to transform the base ingredients of oil and the ochre into spiritual gold … Beauty in other words.