William Scott (artist)

For other people named William Scott, see William Scott (disambiguation).

William Scott
Born	(1913-02-15)February 15, 1913 Greenock, Scotland
Died	December 28, 1989(1989-12-28) (aged 76) Coleford, England
Nationality	British
Known for	Painting
Movement	Abstract
Awards	CBE

William Scott (15 February 1913 – 28 December 1989) was a British artist known for still life and abstract painting. He is the most internationally celebrated of 20th century Ulster painters.

Early life and education

Born in Greenock, Scotland, to Scots-Irish parents, in 1924 his family moved with his mother, Agnes to Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, to join his father in his native town. His father was a housepainter and signwriter and was killed in an accident in 1927 while trying to save lives in a local fire. He was educated at the Model School and attended night classes in art at the Technical School, taught by Kathleen Bridle. He went to Belfast College of Art in 1928 and won a scholarship to the Royal Academy Schools in London in 1931. There he won a silver medal and became a Landseer scholar in painting. In London he shared a flat with two welshmen, Alfred Janes and Dylan Thomas. He was awarded a Leverhulme scholarship in 1935.

Career

He married in 1937 and lived abroad, mostly in Italy and France where he founded an art school in Pont-Aven Brittany. However, in 1939 after the declaration of war he was forced to abruptly return to the UK leaving much of his work in the hands of Julia Correlleau for safe-keeping. From there he stayed in Dublin for six months where his first son, Robert was born. In 1941 he settled in Hallatrow High Littleton In July, his second son, James was born in Wells . During the early years of World War II he helped to run an art school in Bath. In 1942 he volunteered for the navy but was accepted for the army and after serving with a number of regiments he became attached to the Royal Engineers where he served until 1946 and learned lithography in the map-making section. In 1946 he returned to Pont-Aven to recover his pre-war work but failed to find it. From 1946 until 1956 Scott was senior lecturer in painting at the Bath Academy of Art. In the summer of 1953 he visited the USA where he met Jackson Pollock, Elaine de Kooning, Franz Kline and Mark Rothko. Although his work had become predominantly abstract in 1952, after his meeting with the American Abstract Expressionists., he reverted back to his roots in still life and European painting. In 1959-1961, he executed a mural for the Altnagelvin Hospital, Derry. He died at his home near Bath, Somerset in 1989.

Exhibitions

He represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in 1958. He exhibited at the Hanover Gallery in London, at the Martha Jackson Gallery in New York, Italy, Switzerland, West Germany, France, the Kasahara Gallery in Japan, Canada and Australia, as well as Belfast and Dublin. A major retrospective of his work was held at the Tate Gallery, London in 1972 and in 1986 in Edinburgh, Dublin and Belfast. In 1998 a further retrospective was organised by the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin.

Works

• Still Life With Orange Note (1970), Oil on canvas, Arts Council of Northern Ireland collection

References

3. 'William Scott' Norbert Lynton, Thames & Hudson (2003)

External links

• Official website