Scott moved effortlessly between abstraction still-life and figuration with equal confidence creating works of an international standard. Born in 1913 in a career spanning six decades, Scott produced an extraordinary body of work that has secured his reputation as one of the leading forces in British painting from the 1950's right through to the 1970's. Exhibiting in America and Europe from the early 1950s, Scott is renowned for his powerful handling of paint, his exploration of colour and the unstable boundaries between subjective form and abstraction. This exhibition is the first major showing of the artist in the UK for over 20 years.
In 1953 whilst in New York William Scott met Mark Rothko, the first British artist to do so. They became close friends and when Rothko came to Britain in 1959 he stayed with William Scott's family in their cottage in Somerset. Photographs taken by James Scott during this stay and letters between William Scott and Mark Rothko held at the William Scott foundation shed light on the profound influence Rothko had on Scotts mature paintings.
To mark the achievements of this internationally acclaimed modern painter, Tate St Ives, in association with Hepworth Wakefield and Ulster Museum, Belfast, are showcasing an important retrospective exhibition. Beginning at Tate St Ives 26 January with a series of thematic rooms the exhibition will evolve as it travels to Hepworth Wakefield, before expanding into a survey exhibition at Ulster Museum, Belfast. In collaboration with the William Scott Estate, which is currently finalising a catalogue raisonné of the artist’s paintings, the works will be drawn from major collections across the UK and Ireland.
Working across the genres of still life, landscape and the nude, Scott developed a unique language that pushed the boundaries of abstraction and figuration, leaving an influential legacy of work which mediates important developments in mid-twentieth century European and American painting. His work is often charged with a sensuality emanating from his dynamic compositions as well as the vitality of his paint surfaces. Consequently the works have an enduring human quality that continues to be as fresh and relevant today as it was over fifty years ago.
The project is led by Sara Matson, Curator at Tate St Ives with Chris Stephens, Lead Curator of Modern British Art at Tate Britain, Frances Guy, Head of Exhibitions at Hepworth Wakefield and Anne Stewart, Curator of Fine art at the Ulster Museum.
A new book on William Scott by Sarah Whitfield will be published by Tate to mark the centenary and exhibition. This will be followed by a catalogue of the exhibition produced in collaboration with the William Scott Foundation, encapsulating the tour, in its final manifestation in Belfast.
For most of the five-hour trek, I’m followed by stalker hawkers. That’s what I call them. Locals wearing casual attire and flimsy slippers, and each hefting a heavy bag loaded with bottled water, souvenir books, postcards, and T-shirts and hats emblazoned with such mottos as: “It takes a great man to climb the Great Wall.” n I try to ignore the first woman who matches my pace, stopping, resting, slowing down and speeding up for great distances. I hope she’ll tire — no chance. Then I hope that once I stop for lunch in one of the myriad watchtowers, she’ll become bored and move on. Instead, she pulls out her lunch box and sits nearby. Finally, I’m resigned and end up buying a T-shirt.
By the time she and several others over the course of the rigorous route follow and eventually take leave of me, my backpack is stuffed with bottles of water, half a dozen postcards and a couple of T-shirts. My take-away lesson from hiking the Great Wall turns out to be one of patience and acceptance.
My hike is a steep scramble on all fours, up and down the dilapidated, narrow stone path where weeds poke through and shrubs grow. The brick stairs that rise and fall are loose or missing, with gaping holes in places. Even when they’re functional, the risers stand a couple of feet high and can barely accommodate the length of a human foot. Resorting to crawling becomes the routine.
Whenever I stop — which is often — and gaze about, the sweeping vistas resemble a virtual Chinese brush painting: misty forested hills and lush valleys, and the ever-present serpentine wall, dotted with towers, winding in both directions over the undulating peaks. It’s these views that make the effort worth every step.
Following China’s rugged Great Wall from Jinshanling to Simatai is like a test of endurance at times. I’m either climbing up or down the symbolic dragon’s back, carefully watching each step for fear that a misplaced foot will mean falling into a hole or careening off the Great Wall itself that perches over a precipitous landscape.
On this eastward seven-some-mile trek, the first and last parts are restored sections, where I can easily enter one of the multistoried watchtowers and imagine the soldiers scanning the broad landscape, sending black smoke signals or lighting fires to alert others to an impending attack.
Severing the alliance reflects the initiative of the museum’s newly hired executive director, Malcolm Warner, who is pushing the museum to add breadth to its California art focus by paying attention to other nature-based art.
“We’re not turning our back on celebrating landscape plein air painters; we want to open up to a celebration of art that engages natures,” said Warner, who sketched out a still evolving plan to replace the invitational with a conference or festival that involves scientists, environmentalists and artists that work with natural phenomenon. Hosting LPAPA’s fall invitational was “too much effort in support of one genre,” said Warner, whose decision was endorsed by the museum’s board on Jan. 8.
The museum, of course, owes its founding to the town’s early Impressionist landscape artists, such as Anna Hills and Edgar Payne. Even so, the Plein Air Painters Association intends to carry on that legacy independently and in a permanent venue that will display its members works, long-term goals of the art organization founded in 1996 by local landscape artists. Previously, the group held temporary exhibitions at various galleries.
Carrying out the upcoming 15th invitational, where 40 painters from across the country are invited for a week-long on-location painting competition, will be a challenge, said Greg Vail, the group’s president. “I’m hoping supporters will help us,” he said, figuring catering, prize money, accounting, credit card processing and other miscellany at about $160,000. Previously, revenue from paintings sold at the contest was divvied up, with most going to the artist and the remainder between LPAPA and the museum, which provided support staff and the venue. “Now we will be sharing equally with the artist,” said Vail, who was promised use of the venue for the invitational without cost.
“It’s an ideal solution for LPAPA; they’ve done something impossible up to now,” said Jean Stern, executive director of the Irvine Museum, referring to the organization’s lack of a physical home. Though the event will lose some of its historical luster by decamping from its ancestral home, it continues to reinforce Laguna’s legacy as a city founded by artists, said Stern, who served as judge of LPAPA’s last invitational, a task he’s performed at similar events around the country.
“They see a real strategic value in having Laguna’s cultural legacy in their midst,” Vail said of the expected new owners of the 85-acre nine-hole golf course and 62 aging suites. He described a hand-shake deal with one of the principals involved in the pending transaction with Aliso Creek Properties LLC, which also owns the nearby Montage resort. Joan Gladstone, a spokeswoman for the owners, said she could not provide any projection as to when the sale will close.
The principal, who Vail declined to identify, described informal plans for updating and expanding the venue’s meeting space. “There’s a strong business case for doing this,” said Vail, who for two years previously worked for the Inn’s current owners on a redevelopment plan that was ultimately shelved.
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