Since relocating to rural Wales, we feel as though many of the paintings we have by Northern Industrial artists just don’t suit the interior or new locale. I was doing some research online for artists whose work I felt would be more in keeping, when I discovered William Scott (1913-1989).
I love Scott’s style, composition (the repeated use of still life objects such as pears, fish and pots & pans) and palette. His pared back approach really works in simple, rustic, minimalist surroundings.
Scott was born in Greenock, Scotland and moved with his family, at the age of 11, to his father’s home-town of Enniskillen, Northern Ireland. He attended Belfast College of Art where he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy Schools.
This is what he says of his work:
I am an abstract artist in the sense that I abstract. I cannot be called non-figurative while I am still interested in the modern magic of space, primitive sex forms, the sensual and the erotic, disconcerting contours, the things of life.
Some of his later pieces really remind me of the work of Mark Rothko (see the two portrait shaped ones above). Coincidentally, here’s William Scott with the latter (Rothko stayed with the Scott family in England in 1959) in a short film produced by the Tate to accompany their Scott centenary exhibition in 2013.
As well as the Tate, his work is in the collections of the Ulster Museum, Fitzwilliam Museum, National Galleries of Scotland, The British Council Collection and Kettle’s Yard.
I’m not surprised that Kettle’s Yard has examples of his work; it’s very reminiscent (to me, anyway) of that of Ben Nicholson – another artist in the Kettle’s Yard collection.
His work often comes up for sale; from original oils for hundreds of thousands of pounds to limited-edition prints available for the tens of thousands. We may have to settle for a collection of postcards from a museum shop!
Image credits:
