modern masters iii
modern masters iii 2 – 26 july 2014 wilhelmina barns-graham
robert macbryde
john byrne
sir william mactaggart
james cowie
david mcclure
william crosbie
james morrison
pat douthwaite
alberto morrocco
j.d. fergusson
s.j. peploe
john houston
sir robin philipson
peter howson
perpetua pope
william johnstone
16 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ tel 0131 558 1200 email mail@scottish-gallery.co.uk www.scottish-gallery.co.uk
Cover: Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Geoff and Scruffy Series, 1956, oil on canvas, 55.8 x 76 cms (cat. no. 1) Left: John Byrne, Self Portrait, 1992, oil drawing on board, 117.5 x 92.5 cms (cat. no. 3)
2 |
modern masters iii
Foreword For the past few years we have mounted an ambitious mixed exhibition in the Gallery for July and this year are delighted to present a selection of 20th Century Scottish painting to continue our examination of the modern spirit in Scottish art. Scotland has always produced a seemingly disproportionate number of the best painters in succeeding eras of British art from the 18th Century onwards. In the last hundred years, the period of modernism, the Scottish contribution has been distinctive, sometimes against the grain of the pervading culture and its proliferation of ‘isms’, often characterised by the use of strong colour. However there is enough variety of approach within the Scottish School to undermine the case for its existence; art is always more about individuality than cultural hegemony. We celebrate artists as diverse as John Byrne and Robin Philipson, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham and Pat Douthwaite, James Morrison and James Cowie. We have an important still life by Robert MacBryde, a stunning group of Peploe drawings, and a significant group of six oil paintings by Alberto Morrocco. We are grateful to the many private collectors who have entrusted us with their work for sale and hope you will manage to visit the gallery in July. guy peploe the scottish gallery
Opposite: Robert MacBryde at Maybole, Ayrshire, c.1937. Image courtesy of The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
4 |
modern masters iii
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Porthmeor Studios 1962, Cornish Magazine, February 1962
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham cbe, hrsa, hrsw (1912-2004) 1 Geoff & Scruffy Series, 1956 oil on canvas, 55.8 x 76 cms provenance
The Barns-Graham Trust Inventory no. BGT570
This work relates to what has become known as the Geoff and Scruffy series, which Barns-Graham worked on in the mid 1950s when she was living in St Ives. The series is so-called as it was inspired by the relationship between her friend Geoffrey Tribe and his dog, a mongrel stray called Scruffy. “The main shape came from drawings done in the wars, of men and buoys – some [of which] were green, red, black or white. The shape got simplified, the half moon was the [Porthmeor] beach shape cut by the sea.” Wilhelmina Barns-Graham “Barns-Graham’s habitual way of working, which evolved during this decade [1950s], is evident in the Geoff and Scruffy paintings. Never content to limit her abstract language, she constantly extends the range of forms, rhythms, and hues available to her, by replenishing them from the detail of observed phenomena that attracts her.” Lynne Green, W. Barns-Graham, A Studio Life, 2001, p.143-144
modern masters iii
| 5
6 |
modern masters iii
Balmungo Studio, c.1992, photograph by Rowan James. Image courtesy of the WilhelminaBarns-GrahamCharitableTrust.
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham cbe, hrsa, hrsw (1912-2004) 2 Scorpio Series 2, No.15, 1996 acrylic on paper, 56.5 x 76 cms signed and dated lower left provenance
The Barns-Graham Trust Inventory no. BGT944
In the 1990s, while in her 80s, Barns-Graham’s paintings became more freely painted, demonstrating an urgency from within the artist.“The Scorpio Series, as it was called, introduced her paintings to new audiences and revitalised her career. The strong colour and dynamic movement of the images reveal a joie de vivre that communicates itself strongly with the viewer.” Geoffrey Bertram, The Barns-Graham Trust Scorpio Series 2 is recognised as being one of the most important series of her career, this is a vibrant painting – an explosion of colour and form which confronts the senses and is painted with absolute certainty. In 1996, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art held a retrospective of her work and this picture is a reflection of the artistic confidence in her own abilities and position.
modern masters iii
| 7
8 |
modern masters iii
John Byrne in The Scottish Gallery, c.1997
John Byrne rsa (b.1940) 3 Self Portrait, 1992 oil drawing on board, 117.5 x 92.5 cms signed and dated lower left provenance
The Artist’s Studio
Byrne has been painting, drawing and etching his own image for over fifty years, both as John Byrne and under his pseudonym Patrick. In their many styles and guises, Byrne’s self portraits are instantly recognisable in character; the flamboyant persona is ever present. This oversized self portrait was drawn in 1992 when Byrne was aged 52 and is a virtuoso piece of ‘action painting’ made with a single oil colour on a prepared, white board. An exhibition of Byrne’s portraits is scheduled to take place at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery for the Edinburgh Festival in 2014. Byrne’s portraits can be found in the public collections of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh; Museum of Modern Art, Glasgow; Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow.
modern masters iii
| 9
10 |
modern masters iii
James Cowie rsa (1886-1956) 4 David Foggie, 1945 pastel & chalk, 22 x 20 cms signed lower right provenance
Collection of Dr George Firth OBE; Private Collection, Edinburgh exhibited
Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 1948; Pictures and Drawings – James Cowie, the French Institute, Edinburgh, Nov. 1951; James Cowie Memorial Exhibition, Arts Council, Scottish Committee, 1957, cat. no. 96
This portrait by James Cowie was completed at Hospitalfield in Arbroath in 1945, where Cowie was Warden between 1937 and 1947. Foggie was a well known Dundonian painter and the secretary of the Royal Scottish Academy until his death in 1948, after which Cowie took up the post, moving down from Arbroath to Edinburgh. Cowie found it hard to adjust to life as part of the establishment, often finding himself in disagreement with fellow Academicians. He was a painter who thought that art was the product of thought, rather than emotion and for this reason he sat outside the expressive tradition that dominated Scottish art in the mid 20th century. He was a fine portrait painter and this pastel sketch of Foggie shows a psychological engagement with the subject, who returns a careworn stare.
modern masters iii
| 11
12 |
modern masters iii
William Crosbie rsa, rgi (1915-1999) 5 Chez Nous, 1992 oil on canvas board, 45 x 60.5 cms signed and dated lower left provenance
Ewan Mundy Fine Art, Glasgow; Collection of Professor Ronald Mavor CBE, Edinburgh
William Crosbie was born in Hankow, China in 1915 to British parents. They returned to Glasgow in 1926 where he entered Glasgow School of Art in 1932. He spent a year in Paris under Fernard Léger which was to have an important effect on his development as a painter. In later life he remarked that he felt “trained” in Glasgow but educated in France – being allowed the freedom of being left on one’s own to develop. He returned to Glasgow in 1939 and set up studio where he was to remain for the rest of his life. He was at the centre of what he once described as “a little local Renaissance” which included such luminaries as JD Fergusson, James Bridie (whose son bought this painting), TJ Honeyman and Basil Spence. Crosbie was one of the finest, and most adventurous Scottish painters of the 20th century. His abstract surrealist paintings from the late 1930s and 1940s are unique to Scottish painting. As his career progressed still life became a more and more important part of his practice. This late work, Chez Nous is a fantastic example of the group of intimiste still life paintings which he completed in his final decade. It combines Crosbie’s interest in the formal qualities of still life painting, a love of colour, and intellectual engagement with his subject. The Scottish Gallery is to host a major retrospective of William Crosbie in January 2015. This painting and the James Morrison painting cat. no. 15 were in the collection of Ronald Mavor, Director of the Scottish Arts Council and Deputy Chairman of the Edinburgh Festival. Ronald was the son of James Bridie, the acclaimed Scottish playwright.
modern masters iii
| 13
14 |
modern masters iii
PatDouthwaitewithpaintingduring her solo exhibition at the Richard DemarcoGallery,8MelvilleCrescent, Edinburgh, 1969. Courtesy of the Demarco European Art Foundation.
Pat Douthwaite (1939-2002) 6 Simon With a Gun, 1966 oil on board, 81 x 96 cms exhibited
Pat Douthwaite Retrospective, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2000; Pat Douthwaite, The Scottish Gallery at Art London, 2001; PatDouthwaite,PaintingsandWorksonPaper,TheScottishGallery, Edinburgh, 2011
The starting point for a painting by Douthwaite is always real: an historical figure, an observed incident or a character. The eponymous Simon seems like a dandy, the gun an affectation and the action more theatrical than menacing. His face is painted as a profile and full on, a device surely borrowed from Picasso; he seems to have an Eton collar, frock coat and a patterned cravat which spills outward as a hyper-expression of his personality, floating over the gun. He might be an undergraduate, Douthwaite was living mostly in Cambridge at this time, or a denizen of Soho or Chelsea, proclaiming his freedom from authority, arrogant and louche, a perfect expression of the time.
modern masters iii
| 15
16 |
modern masters iii
J.D. Fergusson rba (1874-1961) 7 Standing Nude, 2013 bronze, (edition 2 of 9), 24 cms height provenance
Cast in an edition of nine by permission of The Fergusson Gallery, Perth, sculpture first conceived c.1913
An interest in sculpture had first been kindled through visiting museum collections and Fergusson’s friendship with Jo Davidson and Jacob Epstein. There are many potential influences on the artist’s choice of materials and style, ancient and modern. In Paris, Margaret Morris remembered his fascination with ancient Cambodian sculpture in the Trocadero, and he would have been fascinated by the simplified forms of Constantin Brancusi’s recent carvings. Fergusson made just a handful of works in three dimensions, but with his talent, he could have undoubtedly made sculpture a more significant part of his practice. His treatment of the female nude form in drawings and paintings demonstrates his innate ability to think in the round and his deep understanding of oil paint as a plastic medium makes the translation to clay a natural one.
modern masters iii
| 17
18 |
modern masters iii
John Houston obe, rsa, rsw (1930-2008) 8 Moon over the Bay, c.1971 oil on canvas, 65 x 70 cms signed lower left, signed and titled verso provenance
Mercury Gallery, London
John Houston was renowned for evoking the character of a place through his expressionist style of painting. He was stimulated by the different light and weather effects of the British coastline. Houston remarked that he “might make certain features or colours more dominant for the mood or the light of the composition�. Moon over the Bay is painted almost entirely in blue tones yet portrays the subtle characteristics of a warm, moonlit evening; we see a bold full moon illuminating the calm shore of the bay.
modern masters iii
| 19
20 |
modern masters iii
Peter Howson (b.1958) 9 The Docker, 1985 pastel, 40 x 31 cms signed and dated verso provenance
The Compass Gallery, Glasgow; Private Collection, Edinburgh
In 1985 the exhibition New Image Glasgow at theThird Eye Centre brought together Howson, Ken Currie, Stephen Campbell and Adrian Wizniewski, the New Glasgow Boys, a group of figure painters who generated enormous excitement in the British Art scene which had become dominated by conceptual minimalism. Two years later the SNGMA mounted a survey show titled The Vigourous Imagination which added more participants and established Scottish painting as a dominant force in the contemporary art world. Howson worked in oil and pastel and his subjects, like Currie, tended towards social realism. The Docker is a powerful, moving, early example which combines delicacy and strength typical of the artist’s best work.
modern masters iii
| 21
22 |
modern masters iii
William Johnstone obe (1897-1981) 10 Study for a Portrait, 1974 oil on canvas, 46 x 36 cms signed and dated verso provenance
Private Collection, Edinburgh exhibited
William Johnstone Paintings, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, February 1992, cat. no. 32; Marchlands, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, January-March 2012, illustrated p.34
“…the face is lost in shadow. This was the first of many strange, oblique portraits that he [William Johnstone] painted in the latter part of his career. They are a study in themselves.” Duncan Macmillan
modern masters iii
| 23
24 |
modern masters iii
Mrs Hope Montagu Douglas Scott at home, Laidlawsteil, Borders,early1970s.ImagecourtesyofTheHopeScottTrust.
William Johnstone obe (1897-1981) 11 Head Study – Hope Scott, c.1977 oil on canvas board, 65 x 54 cms
William Johnstone met Hope Scott in 1969 at an exhibition in Newcastle. He wrote in his autobiography, Points in Time, “that October day changed everything that I could have expected in the last years of my life… Her enthusiasm and sympathetic understanding re-kindled my passionate zeal to work”. He painted several portraits of Hope Scott during the 1970s, each one capturing a different aspect of her character as he perceived it. One of these portraits is held in the permanent collection of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh.
modern masters iii
| 25
26 |
modern masters iii
THE ROBERTS
Robert MacBryde 12 Still Life with Calf’s Head, c.1948 oil on canvas, 71 x 91 cms signed provenance
Private Collection, Dumfries & Galloway exhibited
The Roberts, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2010, illustrated p.24 illustrated
The Last Bohemians by Roger Bristow, 2010, illustrated [008] p.81
“I set out to make statements, in visual terms, concerning the things I see, and to make clear the order that exists between objects which sometimes seem opposed. I do this because it is the painter’s function, generally speaking, to explore and demonstrate in his work the interdependency of forms. This leads me beneath the surface appearance of things, so that I paint the permanent reality behind the passing incident, the skeleton which is the basic support of the flesh. In doing this I perceive a ‘pictoral logic’ which dictates that, if a certain line or colour exists in a painting, there must be certain other lines and colours which allow the completed painting to be an organic whole.” Robert MacBryde, c.1947 Robert MacBryde is one half of a famous artistic couple, known collectively as ‘The Roberts’. Robert Colquhoun and Robert MacBryde are the subject of a major retrospective at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art opening in November 2014. Still Life with Calf’s Head is a rare example of his work; an uneasy composition of basic food stuffs in preparation for a pot of soup. The painting captures the tensions of everyday domestic life in uncertain times. It is also the departure point from his earlier, romantic still life paintings into a more complex, bolder series of narrative paintings. The Scottish Gallery will be hosting GoldenYears, a collection of monotypes, lithographs, drawings and paintings in November 2014 just prior to the opening at the SNGMA.
modern masters iii
| 27
28 |
modern masters iii
Sir William MacTaggart pprsa, ra, rsw (1903-1981) 13 Church in Telemark, 1954 oil on canvas, 76.5 x 92 cms signed and dated lower right provenance
Private Collection, Woking exhibited
Probably, RSA, 1955, cat. no. 128 as Old Church, Telemark; Sir William MacTaggart – Retrospective Exhibition, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, June 1968, cat. no. 29
Telemark is a county in south eastern Norway. MacTaggart was a frequent visitor to Norway after his marriage to Fanny Aavatsmark; they had met when she curated an exhibition of work by Edvard Munch which took place at the SSA in Edinburgh in 1934, when he was President. The rich, dark, brooding landscape appealed to the young Scottish painter whose instinct was always to be an expressionist working in a Northern European tradition. In this work of 1954 he uses a palette knife and a construction of close tones to build up the atmosphere of a forested valley pressing in on a community. Light catches the whitewashed walls of the church in the dying autumnal light and sets a glow in the tall trees around the churchyard. The following year he had a one-man show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Oslo.
modern masters iii
| 29
30 |
modern masters iii
David McClure rsa, rsw (1926-1998) 14 Still Life, Flowers and Cock, 1963 oil on canvas board, 30.5 x 23 cms signed lower right, signed and titled on label verso provenance
The Artist’s Estate
“McClure is a hedonistic painter, rejoicing in the abundance of life. The rich glowing surfaces of his paintings are a celebration, a passionate embracing world.” Dr John Morrison (Senior Lecturer in History of Art University of Aberdeen)
tactile flower of the at the
modern masters iii
| 31
32 |
modern masters iii
James Morrison rsa, rsw (b.1932) 15 Two Lamps, 1958 oil on board, 91 x 69 cms signed and dated lower left provenance
The Artist’s Studio; Collection of Professor Ronald Mavor CBE, Edinburgh
“Morrison’s paintings emerged from an ideology rooted in the principle that an artist should paint the environment they inhabit.” John Morrison, Land and Landscape, 2012 In this early example of James Morrison’s work, made shortly after his move from Glasgow to Catterline in 1958 two gently glowing oil lamps emerge from the dark, earthy tones of a cottage interior. Still in everyday use, the lamps speak of the basic living conditions of a hard-working rural fishing and farming community, made famous by its artistic residents. Morrison relocated from Glasgow to Catterline in 1958. Throughout the paintings he produced in Catterline there is a concern for human values embedded in his work. This originated from socialist philosophies current in Glasgow as well as his renewed interest in French Realism.
modern masters iii
| 33
34 |
modern masters iii
Alberto Morrocco in his Binrock Studio, Dundee, c.1996. Photograph by Chris Close.
Alberto Morrocco obe, rsa, rsw (1917-1998) 16 Sleeping Clown, 1995 oil on board, 17.75 x 30.5 cms signed and dated upper left provenance
Private Collection, Edinburgh exhibited
Thackeray Gallery, London, 1995
Morrocco did once paint an ‘American’ clown, which started off as a self-portrait, but his clowns otherwise belong to the commedia del arte tradition, or perhaps the etiolated saltimbanchi which feature in early Picasso etchings and Blue Period paintings. The patterned clothes and white, pointed hat are exploited for decorative effect but the reference to the idea of the artist as performer, his personality secondary to his traditional function to entertain and amuse, is understood and lend these seminal images their poignancy.
modern masters iii
| 35
36 |
modern masters iii
Alberto Morrocco obe, rsa, rsw (1917-1998) 17 Clown Contemplating, 1996 oil on board, 50 x 50 cms signed and dated upper right provenance
Private Collection, Edinburgh exhibited
Alberto Morrocco, New Paintings,The ScottishGallery, Edinburgh, August 1996, cat. no. 37
Morrocco had a thorough, academic training and drew constantly. In the earlier painting his oils were carefully prepared with drawing. In the nineties he used the huge resource of his sketchbooks for compositional and subject ideas and increasingly painted directly, letting the work fulfil its own potential, so honed were his decorative instincts. His home was a huge treasure trove of objects, fabrics, furniture, props and ceramics and he worked tirelessly and urgently in the last years of his life making some of his most charming and enduring images and arriving at his full potential as a colourist.
modern masters iii
| 37
38 |
modern masters iii
Alberto Morrocco obe, rsa, rsw (1917-1998) 18 Supper in the Kitchen, c.1952 oil on board, 91.5 x 66 cms signed upper left provenance
Private Collection, Canada exhibited
Alberto Morrocco, Retrospective, Dundee Art Galleries, 1993, cat. no. 25; Alberto Morrocco, Thackeray Gallery, London, 2002 illustrated
Alberto Morrocco, Victoria Keller and Clara Young, Mainstream, 1993, titled ‘Boys in the Kitchen’, plate 16
Morrocco produced several domestic interior compositions featuring Vera and the children (Laurie and Leon in particular; Lisa arrived a little later). These charming works owe a debt to the French Intimisme of Bonnard and Vuillard both in subject and handling but are also early examples of the artist’s lifelong interest in how casual observation, whether in the home or on an Italian beach, is legitimate and fecund subject matter for painting.
modern masters iii
| 39
40 |
modern masters iii
Alberto Morrocco obe, rsa, rsw (1917-1998) 19 Gypsy Encampment, Gitano, 1994 oil on board, 35 x 61.5 cms signed and dated lower right provenance
Private Collection, Canada exhibited
Alberto Morrocco, Thackeray Gallery, London, 1995
The horse is untethered from the trap, and feeding happily in the shade of a grove of plane trees. An intense blue sea is beyond while the only sign of the gypsies is a man, partially obscured by a tree, also at rest. Like so much of his work in oils the picture refers back through sketchbooks to experiences and observations that seem tied to a bygone era.
modern masters iii
| 41
42 |
modern masters iii
Alberto Morrocco obe, rsa, rsw (1917-1998) 20 Woman Pounding Garlic, 1995 oil on board, 50.5 x 40 cms signed and dated lower right provenance
Private Collection, Canada exhibited
Alberto Morrocco, Thackeray Gallery, London, 1995
The artist has glanced into another kitchen where a heavy set Italian woman is at work with mortar and pestle; she is barefoot, the interior is simple, but beautifully observed. She is quite authentic as is the stool, range with heavy pan and tiled background. Perhaps the slice of watermelon is imagined, a motif so familiar it is almost like a second signature.
modern masters iii
| 43
44 |
modern masters iii
Alberto Morrocco obe, rsa, rsw (1917-1998) 21 Street in Hammamet, 1994 oil on canvas, 61 x 56 cms signed and dated lower right provenance
Private Collection, Canada exhibited
Alberto Morrocco, Thackeray Gallery, London, 1995
Hammamet is the most popular resort on the Tunisian coast, located on a wide bay of the same name. The Morroccos visited around 1984 and Alberto made several exotic interiors with the female figure in both watercolour and oil. Once again this subject will have come from a sketchbook and records a deceptively simple scene: an Arab woman with black umbrella against the midday sun, black cat, eyeing up the shelter of an interior through a doorway at the end of the short street, palm tree and single, defiant cloud. His unerring sense of design combines with gentle humour to make a memorable image.
modern masters iii
| 45
46 |
modern masters iii
S.J. Peploe rsa (1871-1935) 22 Iona, c.1927 oil on canvas, 51 x 61 cms signed lower left Note: Painting of two boys verso provenance
Private Collection, Edinburgh
“The nature of weather systems on the west coast of Scotland meant that Peploe had an ever-changing subject. The Iona paintings were instantly popular and did much to secure the artist’s commercial success. But the island was of far more significance for Peploe. It was a sanctuary. He felt in tune with this place. He was a spiritual man without having orthodox Christian belief.” Guy Peploe, SJ Peploe (1871-1935), Lund Humphries, 2012
modern masters iii
| 47
48 |
modern masters iii
S.J. Peploe rsa (1871-1935) 23 Girl in the Shade of her Hat, c.1920 sanguine, 27.75 x 21.25 cms signed lower right provenance
The Artist’s Family
“From the beginning Peploe saw fit to exhibit drawings; and his first two exhibitions at The Scottish Gallery included as many drawings as paintings. He would carry a sketchbook wherever he went, making quick, sharply observant drawings of life in Edinburgh and Paris.” Guy Peploe, SJ Peploe (1871-1935), Lund Humphries, 2012
modern masters iii
| 49
50 |
modern masters iii
S.J. Peploe rsa (1871-1935) 24 Figure Study, Reaching Forward, c.1927 charcoal, 24.7 x 33.1 cms signed lower right provenance
The Artist’s Family
“Peploe loved to draw women. The excitement of drawing from life has been a driving inspiration for artists since the Renaissance and this force is communicated in Peploe’s nudes. He worked quickly, changing the model’s pose after each sketch, capturing the tension of an extended back or twisting neck, obsessed by the infinite variety of the body’s posture.” Guy Peploe, SJ Peploe (1871-1935), Lund Humphries, 2012
modern masters iii
S.J. Peploe rsa (1871-1935) 25 Figure Study, Leaning Back, c.1927 charcoal, 33 x 24.75 cms signed lower left provenance
The Artist’s Family
| 51
52 |
modern masters iii
S.J. Peploe rsa (1871-1935) 26 Seated Model with Bandeau, c.1927 charcoal, 36 x 25 cms provenance
The Artist’s Family
“…Beautifully observed and swiftly executed; a moment preserved.” Guy Peploe
modern masters iii
| 53
54 |
modern masters iii
Sir Robin Philipson prsa, ra, rsw (1916-1992) 27 Nude and Ethiopian II
Sir Robin Philipson prsa, ra, rsw (1916-1992) 28 Nude and Ethiopian III
ink & watercolour, 17 x 17.5 cms
ink & watercolour, 17 x 17.5 cms
signed lower right
signed lower right
exhibited
exhibited
Rowland, Browse & Delbanco, London
Rowland, Browse & Delbanco, London
modern masters iii
| 55
Twenty two years have passed since the death of Robin Philipson and he remains one of Scotland’s most enigmatic artists, his reputation secure but his place in post-War Scottish art somehow unfixed. He was of enormous importance to The Scottish Gallery where we held nine exhibitions in his lifetime and was the most high-profile Scottish artist of his generation earning countless honours including a knighthood in 1976. He was a man of enormous energy and capacity, devoted to his senior role at Edinburgh College of Art and stewardship of The Royal Scottish Academy, where his Presidency can be seen as a golden age. As a painter his energy was matched by his ambition; his desire to engage with great human themes: sex, war, redemption and sacrifice often corralled into an existential narrative on a small and sometime monumental scale. These two paintings will date from the 1960s and were exhibited at Rowland, Browse & Delbanco, Philipson’s main London outlet. Like a good modernist Philipson was never tempted to provide his own analysis of the iconography of his painting; he preferred it to remain enigmatic or to allow the viewer to respond without instruction. These two jewel like watercolours are representative of this enigmatic approach to iconography. The figures that stand behind the female nudes blend into the background of the paintings, and are symbolic of the universality of man. Philipson was always interested in the dark side in the human psyche and its endless manifestations of violence and cruelty, as well as beauty.
56 |
modern masters iii
Perpetua Pope (1916-2013) 29 Garmouth, Moray, c.1960 oil on canvas, 44.5 x 59 cms signed lower right
Pip Pope was born in Solihull in Warwickshire, but she moved with her family to Aberdeenshire in 1917. This picture is of Garmouth in Moray, not far from the family home and will have been painted on a trip up to see her parents, Pip having moved to Edinburgh to study in 1936. The painting depicts an irrigation ditch between two fields, the bright strip of water reflecting a blustery, blue sky. A knoll rises in the distance and the North Sea is visible to the far right. This picture has been dated to 1960 when Pip’s practise was most like her contemporary Joan Eardley. Applied with a palette knife, the marks are broad and decisive. Whilst Eardley was more interested in a direct emotional engagement with the landscape, Pope is instead concerned with capturing the atmosphere and mood of a Scottish summer day; sunny but with the threat of a storm in the sky.
modern masters iii
| 57
58 |
modern masters iii
Published by The Scottish Gallery to coincide with the exhibition modern masters iii
2 - 26 July 2014 Exhibition can be viewed online at www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/modernmasters ISBN: 978-1905-146-97-0 Designed by www.kennethgray.co.uk Photography by William Van Esland Printed by Barr Colour Printers All rights reserved. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced in any form by print, photocopy or by any other means, without the permission of the copyright holders and of the publishers.
16 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ tel 0131 558 1200 email mail@scottish-gallery.co.uk www.scottish-gallery.co.uk
Right: Alberto Morrocco, Street in Hammamet (detail), 1994, oil on canvas, 61 x 56 cms (cat. no. 21)
modern masters iii
| 59
60 |
modern masters iii