William Scott
(1913 - 1989)
Painting, 1960
P939
Oil on canvas
Signed W.Scott upper right
Unframed: H: 33.5 in (85cm) W: 43.5 in (109.2cm)
Framed: H: 36 in (91.5 cm) W: 46 in (117 cm)
The actual touch and the way I put paint on canvas matter very much…I am extremely interested in textural qualities – the thick paint, the thin paint, the scratched lines…
(William Scott quoted in A. Bowness (ed.), William Scott: Paintings, London, 1964, pg. 11).
PROVENANCE
Hanover Gallery, London
Antiquariato G. Cesarano, Bergamo
Galleria Lorenzelli, Bergamo
PRINT
SHAREDESCRIPTION
Painting, 1960 highlights the epitome of Scott’s unique ability to find beauty in plainness, and in keeping with his most celebrated works, it hovers in the thin line between figurativism and abstraction. It shows Scott’s ambition to achieve a synthesis between objects and space. Furthermore, Painting also highlights his interest in the exploration of colour, and tonal variations, with richly coated blue and brown shapes, unanchored in a thickly painted surface.
LITERATURE
John Russell, ‘William Scott. Developments in Style III’ in London Magazine, Vol. 1. No. 3, June 1961, illustrated
Norbert Lynton, William Scott, Thames & Hudson, London, 2004, cat no. 154, illustrated p.253;
Sarah Whitfield (ed.), William Scott, Catalogue Raisonné of Oil Paintings, Vol. 3, 1960-1968, Catalogue Numbers 428-656, Thames & Hudson in association with the William Scott Foundation, London, 2013, cat. no.439, illustrated p.42
EXHIBITION
Hannover, Kestner Gesellschaft, William Scott, 2nd June 1960-5th February 1961, cat. no.66 (as Untitled), with tour to Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund; and Stadtishce Galerie, Munich;
Bergamo, Galleries Lorenzelli, W. Scott, February 1978
ARTIST'S BIOGRAPHY
William Scott was born in Greenock, Scotland, of Irish and Scottish parents and was brought up in Ulster. He studied at the Belfast College of Art between 1928 and 1931 and at the Royal Academy in 1931-1935. Between 1937 and 1939 he lived in France, mainly Pont-Aven and St-Tropez. Scott said that he picked up from the tradition of painting that he felt most kinship with – the still-life tradition of Chardin and Braque, leading to a certain kind of abstraction, which comes directly from that tradition. His work continued to be based on still-lives, although from the 1950’s he began painting pure abstracts. They featured forms such as squares and circles, but were not geometrically exact and were bounded by sensitive painterly lines. In the late 1960’s and 70’s his style became more austere. Scott is regarded as one of the leading British artists of his generation. He won several awards including first prize at the John Moore’s Liverpool Exhibition. His work is represented in the Tate Gallery, London, and many other collections in Britain and elsewhere. He lived mainly in London and Somerset.
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