THE ART OF SPEED
TERRY ROSS DOESN’T DO WORTHY OIL PAINTINGS OF Stirling Moss driving a classic Aston Martin or Ferrari at Goodwood. ‘Everyone does those, and if I can’t do something original, then I don’t want to do it at all,’ he says. So Terry’s art is art with attitude and a poke in the eye for the traditionalists. If it were a car, it would be doing doughnuts on the Duke of Richmond’s front lawn.
His signature sculptures are instantly arresting, the forms, the compositions and the colours a joyful assault on your eyeballs. But look more closely and there’s just as much joy – and humour, and poignancy – in the tiniest details. One of his sculptures shows pre-war British ace Dick Seaman (no tittering at the back) arm-wrestling his mighty Mercedes W125. Look closely and you’ll see the tyre-tracks are made up of hundreds of miniature swastikas.
When you spot them it’s slightly shocking, but then if you know
