BYAM SHAW, 1983

Paul Butler, Art professor, Byam Shaw School of Art, 1983

But then Rinos Stefani has what the English call ‘the courage of his convictions’. What gives his work its real quality is his ability to reinvent – he tries to find the vocabulary that does not merely present us with a description. He does not simply invite us to look at the subject – we cannot disregard the picture – as a dynamic and dramatic composition which enhances and adds to our perception of the subject matter. For instance his Uprooting (Graham Hamilton Drawing Prize 1983) is about a particular event, it effects us because it tells us about a specific human tragedy, but at the same time it evokes a deeper response which comes out of a sense of suffering humanity. The picture has ‘depth’ in both senses of the word which is what makes it a work of art.